Forget sanctions, military options, or tough talk. The State Department is now hitting Russia with bizarre tweets.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter account tweeted this out early Thursday:
The #UnitedForUkraine hashtag was created by the State Department to spread awareness of the situation in Ukraine — with Russia still bearing down on the eastern border.
"I don’t know what effect this is supposed to have," former State Department diplomat James Lewis told Mashable last month when asked about the Twitter campaign. "It's a hashtag. What’s it going to do? For this situation, it’s not a useful tool."
But with an official Russian account appropriating the hashtag for itself, Jen Psaki, the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, later tweeted this:
Well, it wasn't long before mocking tweets towards the "promise of hashtag" hit. Twitter erupted with snark.
Here's a sampling:
Is it a UN Hashtag Resolution @statedeptspox?
https://t.co/5Hla8Hq6LX
— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) April
25, 2014
"No bastard ever won a war by hashtagging 4 his country. He won
it by making the other poor dumb bastard hashtag 4 his
country." - Patton
— John Schindler (@20committee) April
25, 2014
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers—for whoever retweets
my hashtags today shall be my brother.
— Tom Nichols (@TheWarRoom_Tom) April
25, 2014
"Once more unto the hashtag, dear friends, once more."
— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) April
25, 2014
In the reboot of Captain Planet, it would be "With our powers
of hashtag combined..."
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) April
25, 2014
I promise I will do my hashtag
— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) April
25, 2014
Hashtags are diplomacy by other means.
— Ian (@iboudreau) April
25, 2014
