Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Socialist Democrat from New York, has warned her followers about a parody account going viral and "gaining speed" after interacting with tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The congresswoman tweeted about it on Tuesday, stating, "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."
Ocasio-Cortez's complaints mirrored predictions from critics that parody accounts would cause chaos on Twitter after Musk changed the policies on verification marks for official Twitter accounts. Actress Alyssa Milano was among those who lashed out at Musk over the new guidelines, tweeting angrily at the time, "So by revoking my blue check mark because I wouldn't pay some arbitrary fee, someone can just be me and say a bunch of bulls***. Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation, identity theft, or fraud?"
The focus of Ocasio-Cortez's ire was the "AOCpress" account that is clearly labeled "parody" by the Twitter terms of service. The parody account has 181k followers, while the account for Ocasio-Cortez has more than 13.4 million followers, which diminishes the chance anyone could mistake the parody account for the real account. The report made light of the congresswoman's tweet, responding, "I can't believe someone would do that to us."
"After brainstorming with my staff - I'm going to push Congress to make it illegal to joke, laugh, or make fun of me," the parody tweeted later. "Parody should be illegal," the parody account added. Musk responded to a joke from the parody account on Monday with a "fire emoji," which angered Ocasio-Cortez.
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