AOC Parody Twitter (snopes.com)
May 8, 2019 By Meghan Sackman
Twitter has deactivated the account “@AOCpress” that was created to post satirical tweets pertaining to Congress Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The account, which had 85,000 followers, was deactivated on Monday, along with the account of its creator Mike Morrison, @OfficeOfMike, according to conservative publication Human Events.
Morrison told Human Events that he thought Twitter’s decision to suspend the account was politically motivated.
“We’ve had tweets with over 30,000 likes on them, so I think Twitter decided it was time for [the account] to go,’ Morrison told the publication. “They didn’t like how popular an account created by their political opposition had become.”
Twitter blocked the parody account for its failure to comply with a rule listed on its site.
“You may not register or create fake and misleading accounts,” Twitter’s rule page states. “While you may use Twitter pseudonymously or as a parody, commentary, or fan account, you may not use misleading account information in order to engage in spamming, abusive, or disruptive behavior, including attempts to manipulate the conversations on Twitter.”
Morrison said the account did not break any rules because Twitter allows “parody” or “fan” accounts.
However, according to Twitter rules, it has to be made very clear in the bio and name that the account is unaffiliated with the target “ in a way that can be understood by the intended audience.”
While the account did expressly say “parody,” it also included the phrase “official press releases for AOC” in the bio as well and used AOC’s official twitter picture.
The account did create confusion. For instance, a number of people believed that AOC called an Alabama woman who joined ISIS a hero after a parody tweet.
A spokesperson from the Congress Member’s Office said she had nothing to do with the removal of the account from Twitter.
“We didn’t have anything to do with the account being taken down by Twitter,” spokesperson Corbin Trent said. “We treat social media as an open space for all views.”
