#UkraineCrisis: Russians, US in Hashtag Battle


ISTANBUL — A tweet by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki Thursday night sparked snarky Twitter responses about the diplomacy of a hashtag – but the tweet really is more evidence of a brewing social media Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.

Psaki was responding to the Russian Foreign ministry hijacking the State Department's #UnitedForUkraine campaign by posting its own version of events while using the hashtag.
#Lavrov: Moscow to block distortion of Geneva accords on #Ukraine http://t.co/v6VzgqJHge #UnitedForUkraine
#UnitedForUkraine isn't the only hashtag to be reappropriated by Russia. In the last few weeks, State's #RussiaIsolated hashtag regarding Russia's actions in Crimea sparked a series of tweets from Russian embassies around the world mocking the campaign by tweeting positive messages about Russia and including #russiaisolated.Pro-Russian groups have also started a series of parody accounts, such as @russiaisolator. And pro-Russian social media troll Psaki and statetarget="_blank"'>