Twitter Users Hijack Syria's #SummerInSyria Campaign With Grisly War Images

A social media campaign from Syria’s state news agency asking people to share pictures of their summer has backfired as users instead share photos of the country’s bloody conflict.

The English-language wing of the agency asked users to “snap us your moments of summer” using the hashtag #SummerInSyria. But many users have been using the same hashtag to share photos of bomb-site wreckage and injured civilians from the country’s four-year-old civil war:

Even the U.S. Embassy in Syria got in on the action, posting a picture of a bombing to Twitter.

The conflict, which began in 2011 as President Bashar al-Assad brutally cracked down against pro-democracy demonstrations, has killed more than 210,000 people and displaced half the country’s population, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria in 1940: Crossroads of the Middle East During WWII

A view of Damascus, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Raising the French flag at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Women carry water containers on their heads as they lead mules along a road in a desert village near Damascus, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Members of the Bedouin "camel cavalry" near Damascus, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Street scene, Damascus, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

View of the downtown area of Aleppo from atop the ramparts of the great citadel built in the 4th century B.C.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

View from above Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Soldiers urge a mule up the steps of the citadel at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Scene in Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Inside the garrison of the French expeditionary force in the great citadel at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Street scene, Aleppo, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A narrow street in downtown Aleppo, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A Moroccan soldier of the French expeditionary force holds an officer's Arabian horse inside the great citadel at Aleppo, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Engineers relax on the grounds of the great citadel, Aleppo, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

French Foreign Legion soldiers at their outpost at Homs, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

French Foreign Legion soldiers gather around newly erected tents as they set up their outpost near Homs, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

South of Homs, men of the Tunisian infantry prepare to eat.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Archaeological ruins with modern homes in background, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A family walks past the walled town and beehive-shaped homes of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

View of the walled town of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Syrian children outside the walled town of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.

Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

LIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.

LIFE Magazine

1 of 25

Advertisement

Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com.