A popular Twitter account mocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was hit with a permanent ban after apparently gaining too much steam on the big tech platform. The account, which clearly indicated itself as “parody” in its Twitter name, amassed over 85,000 followers before Twitter shut it down for unclear reasons.
The politico who created and manned the account, Mike Morrison, also had his personal account permanently banned. Morrison, who believes the bans were politically motivated, had nearly 60,000 followers before his seemingly unprovoked exile.
According to screenshots provided by Morrison to Human Events, Twitter acknowledges that clearly-marked parody accounts are allowed but Morrison’s content posted to the AOC parody account was apparently too similar to comments actually made by the socialist.
“You may not register or create fake and misleading accounts. 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 spamming, abusive, or disruptive behavior, include attempts to manipulate the conversations on Twitter,” an email from Twitter said.
“You may also not ‘post duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account or create duplicate or substantially similar accounts,'” the email to Morrison added.
Human Events noted that Morrison’s mock-AOC account followed their rules with regard to online parody:
Twitter rules require all parody, newsfeed, commentary, and fan accounts to indicate “non-affiliation” in both the account name and bio. The AOC Press Release parody account used the word “parody” in both its account name and biography.
“I think Twitter banned AOC Press for the increasing amounts of attention it’s been receiving lately,” Morrison said of the ban.
“In the past month and a half alone the account grew by roughly 50,000 followers. We’ve had tweets with over 30,000 likes on them, so I think Twitter decided it was time for [the account] to go,” he claimed. “They didn’t like how popular an account created by their political opposition had become.”
Late last month, outspoken conservative and award-winning actor James Woods was locked out of his massive Twitter, which has over 2 million followers. As reported by The Daily Wire, Sarah Miller, Woods’ girlfriend, posted a screenshot of an email the actor received from Twitter, which claims Woods was locked out of his account for “violating” Twitter rules “against abusive behavior.”
“If you try to kill the King, you better not miss. #HangThemAll,” the tweet supposedly in violation from the actor said.
Keeping in line with the theme of online censorship, Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook, Inc.) permanently banned so-called “dangerous individuals and organizations” from their accounts on Thursday. Infowars founder Alex Jones, self-described investigative journalist Laura Loomer, Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson, provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan were among those included in the de-platforming.