U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned people Tuesday about a Twitter account being mistaken for her, saying Elon Musk had interacted with it, thereby boosting the digital doppelgänger’s profile.
Ocasio-Cortez did not clarify which account was impersonating her, nor did she specify what interactions said account had with Musk. A quick review of Musk’s recent Twitter activity and replies didn’t indicate he had any major interactions with an AOC impersonator.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
Most of the replies to her Twitter thread do reference a popular lookalike AOC account that may be the target of Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet. However, the account is clearly labeled as a parody account (per Twitter’s rules on parody account disclosure) and isn’t attempting to be taken seriously.
The AOC parody account is named “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody)” with the handle @AOCpress. In its account bio, it again reiterates its “parody” status. The account is verified with a Twitter Blue checkmark that is distinct from the real Ocasio-Cortez’s grey Twitter verification checkmark, which denotes a government official. Ergo, the only way to mistake the two profiles is by glancing at the identical profile pictures and mistaking the parody account’s tweets for something the real Ocasio-Cortez would actually say.
But the parody account isn’t exactly making at-a-glance distinctions easy. In response to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, the humorous imitator copied and posted her message verbatim.
This of course doesn’t confirm that the parody account is, in fact, the impersonator Ocasio-Cortez was referencing.
This isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez took issue with Musk and Twitter. In a viral tweet from April 2022, Ocasio-Cortez took a swing at Musk, calling him “some billionaire with an ego problem.” Musk playfully responded with the quip “stop hitting on me” and a blushing emoji.
Per Ocasio-Cortez’s reminder, it’s always a good idea to be careful on the web and double-check sources to make sure what you’re seeing is the real deal and not, say, meme tweets from a parody account.
