Tipsheet

There's an AOC Parody Account, and Some in the Liberal Media Can't Handle It

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 02, 2023 6:30 AM

It’s hilarious, and the Left can’t cope. Even NBC News devoted an article to a parody account on Twitter. If you haven’t seen it, please check it out, and if you’re on Twitter—give it a follow. The handle is @AOCPress, called “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody).” It’s riddled with non-stop hilarity, with some tweets that you have to do a double-take because it's content that you could see the real New York socialist parroting on the platform:

It's humor that the liberal cannot shake or understand because it exposes the absurdity of their politics. The account has blown up, amassing over 200,000 followers, and it’s verified, which is another point of contention for liberal writers still triggered over Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company, which ended liberal America’s censorship monopoly on the platform. So, yes, at NBC News, the parody account has to be reported on for some reason. It’s actually an old account, which has only recently been freed under the Musk regime: 

A verified Twitter account mocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has skyrocketed in followers and engagement over the last two days, with some help from Elon Musk. Twitter appeared to reinstate the once-banned account in May, with Musk soon interacting with it and boosting its following. 

Twitter has promoted the parody account in other ways, too, including ranking it first in search results for “AOC,” above Ocasio-Cortez’s official account. 

On Tuesday, the account garnered wide attention on the platform after the real Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “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 actually has existed since November 2018 but the following year, under Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s leadership, it was permanently suspended for its “misleading” parody content. When Musk took over the company in 2022, the account was reinstated and some of the new policies have appeared to amplify it. 

[…] 

The @AOCPress account was first started by Michael Morrison, whose Twitter profile identifies him as a member of the New York Young Republicans Club. In May 2019, Morrison’s personal account and the parody account were both permanently suspended. 

Morrison posted about the suspensions on his account on the conservative social media platform Gab, where he also posted from a parody of Ocasio-Cortez’s official account between April 2019 and July 2019. The posts shared on Gab were more sexually explicit and the account reshared posts from other users that contained racist slurs. 

In November 2022, Morrison tweeted about his personal account being restored under Musk’s new leadership. The @AOCPress account wasn’t restored until May 2023. 

You can read the latest from AOCpress here. It’s just something fun. I agree with Ed, though. Did it really need two reporters?