BRITAIN: Russian Embassy Tweets Neo-Nazi Meme

The International Business Times reports:

The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom posted a tweet Monday featuring the image of an odd cartoon frog, which, at first glance, would seem harmless enough. But that frog, in internet parlance, has become a meme employed by white supremacists and is defined as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Wrote Russia’s UK embassy in the tweet, “In today’s papers: pundits call on @Theresa_May to disrupt possible Russia-US thaw. No trust in Britain’s best friend and ally?” Accompanying the text is an image of Pepe the Frog, hand on chin, sarcastically puzzled.

The ADL notes that the meme used to be a normal meme featuring a sad-looking frog, but as it spread across the likes of 4chan and Reddit, it was thoroughly embraced and employed by people spreading hate speech.

Pepe the Frog was especially embraced by white-nationalist, alt-right supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. Trump once retweeted a tweet with the frog. His son, Donald Trump Jr., posted an image with the frog photoshopped into a group of Trump supporters.

In today’s papers: pundits call on @Theresa_May to disrupt possible Russia-US thaw. No trust in Britain's best friend and ally? pic.twitter.com/4TNf9x8PCh

— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) January 9, 2017