Progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that Twitter has a major problem, and she knows because it has affected her directly.
The Democratic representative from New York recently addressed an account on the social media platform that was set up to parody her, but has been causing not just a lot of confusion but wreaking havoc all across Twitter.
The fake Twitter account that’s impersonating her has the username “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody).” This is very deceptive, of course, and is even more concerning seeing as the “(parody)” part of the username doesn’t appear along with the account’s tweets unless you click through to the full profile.
As the real AOC tweeted this week:
“FYI there’s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility. It is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread. I am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see.”
The parody account, whose handle is @AOCPress, only recently started posting tweets and pretending to be the real AOC. Many people on Twitter – including its owner, Elon Musk – has interacted with or reposted its messages, which has boosted its visibility on the platform, leading to it gaining even stronger reach.
One of the tweets that the parody account sent reached out directly to Musk. It read:
“This might be the wine talking, but I’ve got a crush on @ElonMusk.”
Musk then replied directly to the tweet, sending a fire emoji.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas also responded to a tweet that the parody account sent, only to follow it up with another tweet telling his followers that the AOCPress account was a fake one.
One of the main issues here is that due to the Twitter algorithm, the fact that prominent users on the platform have interacted with the parody account, its messages get boosted up other people’s timelines. That is only adding fuel to the fire and making it more difficult to stamp out the issue.
Many users on Twitter took to sending messages that either poked fun at, or outright criticized, the real AOC in this whole ordeal. One example is Project Veritas journalist Laura Loomer, who wrote:
“I can’t tell the difference between AOC’s or a parody account anymore. Just like I can no longer tell whether AOC or MTG is the dumbest member of Congress.”
She was referring to Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Brian Krassenstein, another journalist, pointed out the issue with the usernames and how it is so deceiving. He tweeted:
“While I absolutely respect the right for people who have a parody account, this case specifically is very deceiving since the ‘parody’ wording is not seen on most devices unless the username is clicked. I agree that Musk should do something about it.”
The parody account already has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter, and continues to send tweets that contain many misleading or false statements.
