AOC Parody Account on Twitter Aims to Confuse

On May 30 2023, screenshots appeared of a tweet by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), about a verified “parody account” targeting her:

AOC’s Tweet and News Coverage

In the tweet, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that a “fake account … impersonating” her was “going viral.” Ocasio-Cortez added that the account was “releasing false policy statements,” and that Twitter executive Elon Musk had interacted with the account — engagement certain to draw additional attention to it.

On the same day Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about the account impersonating her, The Independent published a story with the headline “AOC threatens to leave Twitter after Elon Musk promotes ‘disgusting’ account impersonating her,” reporting:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has threatened to quit Twitter after Elon Musk promoted a “sick” account impersonating the Democratic politician.

The New York congresswoman said that she was “assessing” what to do after the billionaire interacted with the fake account on his social media platform … “This is disgusting even for Elon,” tweeted journalist Aaron Rupar, who Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s response.

Nothing in the article contained any indication Ocasio-Cortez “threatened to leave Twitter,” and the headline’s claim appeared to rest on her statement about “assessing” how to handle the matter. “Disgusting” appeared in quotes in the headline, and the body of the article indicated the descriptor came from user Aaron Rupar — not Ocasio-Cortez.

In a May 30 2023 article (“SEEING DOUBLE: AOC lashes out at Twitter parody account ‘impersonating me and going viral'”), Fox News falsely claimed that the parody account “makes clear that it is not actually AOC”:

While the fake account uses the same profile photo as the congresswoman, it makes clear that it is not actually AOC, posting under the name “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody).”

“I can’t believe people would think these parody tweets are from our office when they are clearly fake. Come on y’all you know I would never say something as stupid as that,” the parody account joked in response to AOC’s criticism.

The account hit back at AOC in a series of tweets Tuesday, joking that the congresswoman was going to make parody “illegal.”

“After brainstorming with my staff – I’m going to push Congress to make it illegal to joke, laugh, or make fun of me. Parody should be illegal,” the parody account wrote.

The AOC Parody Twitter Account

Commenters in the above linked Reddit thread repeatedly identified what the above news accounts either neglected or elected not to — that the name of the “parody account” was clearly designed to obscure its satirical nature:

“Some interesting facts surrounding the impersonator account that I’ve found:
—It has a blue checkmark. It also has (parody) as part of the account name, but because AOC’s name is so long you can’t see that unless you click on the profile, at least on mobile.
—It’s putting out a LOT of tweets. Like I think I scrolled through 20 or so, and didn’t get further than a day old.
—some are obviously parody, others are less so.”

“I don’t use Twitter but someone in a different thread on this said the name is ridiculously long and ends with “parody”, but it’s long enough you don’t see parody unless you click on it[.]”

“I don’t use twitter either, but having seen multiple screenshots now this is exactly the case. It does say “(parody)” but the name is exactly long enough that the opening parenthesis is the last visible character[.]”

Ocasio-Cortez’s real account was @AOC on Twitter, and the “parody” account was @AOCpress (with a November 2018 join date visible in its bio). A search of the Internet Archive for @AOCpress returned archived versions dating back to 2018, indicating that the account had in no way bothered the actual Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before May 30 2023 — not long after Musk enabled the “verification” of phony accounts.

Reddit commenters repeatedly observed the account’s “parody” markers were not visible to many Twitter users. On May 31 2023, the account showed as follows, complete with a “verified” blue check:

Ocasio-Cortez claimed the account was “releasing false policy statements,” another critical detail absent from news articles about the controversy. As a commenter pointed out, the account was tweeting constantly — including statements that appeared to be policy–related, not to mention calculated to infuriate the American right wing:

After the legitimate @AOC account tweeted about the hoax, the fake one copied her tweet verbatim:

Ocasi0-Cortez said that Musk engaged with the account to amplify its viral spread. Musk replied to the fake account on May 29 2023:

Musk’s Twitter, Turkey, Elections, and AOC

Earlier in May 2023, Musk came under fire in a controversy over the use of Twitter to influence elections — in Turkey in particular. On May 15 2023, Slate.com’s “Elon Musk Didn’t Just Do Turkey’s Bidding. Censoring for Strongmen Is Now a Pattern” reported:

On Friday night [May 12 2023], the Twitter Global Government Affairs account tweeted out a thread explaining that “in response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.” The account further declared that Twitter had “informed the account holders” affected and clarified that the restricted content “will remain available in the rest of the world.” One can assume from this characterization that Twitter Turkey took actions similar to what Twitter India has historically done in the face of a government’s censorship demands—i.e., obscure a given tweet’s visibility within the country’s borders while allowing it to be viewed everywhere else Twitter operates.

But the timing upped the stakes here. The restrictions occurred on the eve of a highly anticipated national election, one in which incumbent Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced his strongest presidential challenge in two decades. Even more on the nose, Erdogan’s newfound electoral weakness this cycle stemmed in no small part from his disastrous response to the crippling February [2023] earthquakes that leveled much of Syria and Turkey while killing more than 50,000 Turks; in the immediate aftermath, one of Erdogan’s first responses was to entirely restrict Turkish citizens’ Twitter access, as the platform was inundated with criticism of the president that one would never find on Turkey’s state-sanctioned media.

On May 29 2023, The Independent reported that the controversy over Turkey persisted, reporting that Twitter “reportedly received 971 requests from governments, fully acceding to 808 of them and partially acceding to 154” under Musk’s leadership.

By contrast, Twitter “agreed to 50 per cent of such requests” prior to Musk’s takeover:

… Twitter has been accused of helping incumbent Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan stifle criticism by blocking several accounts in the two days before the country’s hotly contested general election … Following severe criticism, Mr Musk alleged Twitter has ‘pushed harder for free speech than any other internet company, including Wokipedia[.”]

Earlier this year [2023] in India, Twitter complied after Narendra Modi’s government used emergency powers to ban content related to a BBC documentary on social media.

Ocasio-Cortez posted twice about Musk, Turkey, and Twitter’s role in influencing elections on May 30 2023, via social media platform BlueSky:

Really wondering about where the line is to leave the other place. I am concerned about next year [2024]’s election given Musk putting his finger on the scale in Turkey, etc.

There is a line where the harm of unchecked disinfo exceeds the benefits of direct, authentic communication.

It’s really sad[.]

Right now many of these folks are sending up test balloons – Trump’s use of AI in the DeSantis video, Musk’s censorship in Turkey for the election.

All of it is precedent-setting and testing waters ahead of ‘24. It will get worse. Q is how to respond when gov overall won’t, or may not in time[.]

Summary

On May 30 2023, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) alerted Twitter accounts to a blue-check “verified,” viral account impersonating her. News coverage of the issue typically failed to mention that the account was structured in a fashion that made its “parody” label invisible to nearly all readers. As Ocasio-Cortez stated, the account made false statements about policy; Elon Musk then proceeded to amplify the account by interacting with it. Broadly, the controversy followed Musk’s controversial decision to interfere with Twitter in Turkey “on the eve of a highly anticipated national election.”