#SummerInSyria social media campaign fails to take off

A new social media campaign by the English-language division of Syria’s state news agency, asking people to share their summer experiences in the war-torn country, has failed to gain traction.

On Monday, SANA English asked its 15,000-plus Twitter followers to use the #SummerInSyria hashtag, saying: “Now that #summer is upon us, snap us your moments of summer in #Syria using the hashtag #SummerInSyria.”

Now that #summer is upon us, snap us your moments of summer in #Syria using the hashtag #SummerInSyria pic.twitter.com/sutvUuZUoj

— SANA English (@SANA_English) June 22, 2015

Only a small handful of social media users responded to the news agency’s request, however, and those who did tweeted pictures of the ongoing conflict in the country.   

https://twitter.com/OfficialJargon/status/612949259856429056

Now its #SummerInSyria your master #Assad welcomed it couple of days in Talbisa #Homs with #BarrelBombs@SANA_English pic.twitter.com/mohmBmxpSv

— Fadi Al-Qadi (@fqadi) June 22, 2015

Syria has been in turmoil after peaceful protests in 2011 against the four-decade rule by Bashar al-Assad’s family turned violent.

More than 210,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the four-year-old civil war, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The conflict has also displaced half the country’s 22 million population.

Rights groups have accused Damascus of committing numerous abuses, including crimes against humanity.