Twitter has permanently blacklisted a parody account of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), as well as the personal Twitter account belonging to Michael Morrison, who had been operating the “AOCPress” parody account.
Jewish Trump supporter Michael Morrison had his personal Twitter account (@OfficeofMike) permanently suspended on Monday, along with the account parodying Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (@AOCPress) which he had been managing.
The @AOCPress account, which was popular among conservatives on Twitter, had garnered over 85,000 followers since it was created in November 2018, with over 17,000 of those followers flocking to the parody account within just the last four weeks.
@AOCPress was known for imitating the socialist representative by tweeting satirical statements that were similar, and at times, even appeared virtually identical to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s real tweets. Morrison did have the account clearly marked as a parody in the “bio” section.
“If socialism doesn’t work then explain to me how Bernie Sanders has become a millionaire being a socialist,” tweeted @AOCPress last month, which acquired over 9,000 retweets and 30,000 favorites.
“While you may use Twitter pseudonymously or as a parody, commentary, or fan account, you may not use misleading account information in order to engage in spammy, abusive, or disruptive behavior, including attempts to manipulate the conversations on Twitter,” the company states in the Twitter Rules.
Why did @Twitter suspend a parody account that was is full compliance with their rules?
Could it possibly be because the account was mocking the lefts new icon AOC?
What's the deal here @jack? Because it sure looks like political bias. https://t.co/t8ScEcLEx1
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 7, 2019
Conservatives on Twitter, including Donald Trump Jr., expressed their dismay and confusion over the banned parody account, adding that they believed @AOCPress was in compliance with the Twitter Rules, as the account had included the word “parody” in both its account name and biography.
“Why did @Twitter suspend a parody account that was is full compliance with their rules? Could it possibly be because the account was mocking the lefts new icon AOC?” inquired Trump Jr., in reaction to OANN host Jack Posobiec, who announced that the parody account was banned on Monday.
“Twitter has permanently suspended @AOCPress a good-natured and clearly-marked parody account and @OfficeOfMike my close friend who managed it,” said Jack Posobiec.
Morrison’s personal account — which was permanently suspended at the same time as @AOCPress — had over 50,000 followers.
“I think they just got scared that it was getting too powerful,” Morrison told Posobiec in a livestream Periscope interview following the suspensions of the two accounts, “and [I think] they just felt that it was time for it to go.”
Banned @AOCPress writer speaks out! https://t.co/tt1Q2jj107
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 7, 2019
“I never post anything with profanity, I keep everything clean,” added Morrison, “they’re all humorous tweets, I try to keep [the account] humorous, and that’s the point, to give everyone a good laugh.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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