Russia’s Defense Ministry says it has launched an inquiry into pictures mistakenly attached to its statement. One was a screenshot from a mobile game, leading to the internet exploding with memes.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense is investigating its civilian employee who mistakenly attached photos to a statement on the US-led coalition’s interaction with the Islamic State militants in the area of Abu-Kamal,” the military said in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, the MoD uploaded images on Facebook and Twitter, which it said were evidence that the US were actually covering up Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) combat units.
The online crowd was quick to point out that one of the pictures was actually a screenshot from “C-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron” mobile game.
The Defense Ministry removed the photos from the post on Facebook and deleted the tweet. It later reposted the same statement with different images.
But it was too late to stop the meme flow. Twitter users rushed to outwit each other in suggesting what other games – Minesweeper, Super Mario Brothers, Space invaders – could illustrate the Russian military statements.