Why Is the U.S. Military Buying Tinder Ads in Lebanon?

Independent journalist Séamus Malekafzali, an American who lives in Beirut, wanted to make some plans for the weekend. So he opened up Tinder, the location-based dating app. But instead of interested singles, he found an apparent ad from his own government threatening to bomb his city.

"The United States will protect its partners in the face of threats by the Iranian regime and its proxies," the ad read in Arabic, along with images of warplanes and the logo of CENTCOM, the U.S. military command responsible for the Middle East and Central Asia. "Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners." 

Just in case the message wasn't clear enough, the ad continued: "CENTCOM is fully prepared with F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters and supersonic A-10 Thunderbolt fighters already in the region." Whoever translated the ad seems to have gotten things mixed up. The F-16 is supersonic and the A-10 is not.