No evidence Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran secret Twitter page
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 6, 2023 at 19:10
- 4 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Lol. AOC…a sitting member of Congress…has a Twitter burner account named ‘Zaza Demon’ where she threatens to kill people," says Liz Churchill, an internet personality and self-described "conspiracy theorist," in a April 3, 2023 tweet shared hundreds of times.
Similar claims accusing Ocasio-Cortez of running a secret account rocketed across Twitter and other social media platforms. The narrative generated headlines on conservative websites such as the Gateway Pundit and was amplified by commentator Ian Miles Cheong, activist Jack Posobiec and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Some attributed an old tweet threatening Daily Wire host Matt Walsh to Ocasio-Cortez.
"This you @AOC? Zaza Demon is your burner account?" said Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, in an April 3 post.
Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, added: "@AOC, denouncing hate and violence shouldn't be hard. Hope this dangerous rhetoric isn't coming from you."
A burner account is an alternative social media profile that someone uses anonymously. American basketball star Kevin Durant and Senator Mitt Romney have previously admitted to maintaining such pages.
But there is no evidence linking Ocasio-Cortez to "zaza demon," which had an anime-themed profile picture and used the handle @zazasmoka, an apparent reference to smoking marijuana.
"I don’t do burners and I would never address someone in this fashion," the congresswoman said in an April 4 reply to Walsh.
No, it’s not, I don’t do burners and I would never address someone in this fashion. As someone subject to a torrent of violent, defamatory rhetoric and the stalking and real-life death threats that accompany it, I would never condone it either.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 4, 2023
An Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson declined to comment further.
How the rumor started
Niko House, who runs a Twitter page called "Joe Biden Hates Black People," first claimed Ocasio-Cortez was using a burner account.
On April 1, House replied to a tweet in which Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged criticizing a prominent anti-LBGTQ influencer.
"But you vote to send money to Nazis and to fund the Israeli apartheid," House said, apparently referencing US aid to Ukraine. "But hey, at least you stood up to a TikTok star."
In response, according to screenshots posted online, the "zaza demon" account tweeted: "Lol and what makes you think that I did anything to support Nazis. You’re delusional. Seek help."
House then claimed Ocasio-Cortez owned the profile, citing the page's use of the first person as evidence.
House repeated the allegation in several subsequent tweets, claiming "Zaza" was a nickname for "Alexander" or "Alexandria."
But as other social media users pointed out, there is a simpler explanation for the account's first-person response: House's reply to Ocasio-Cortez tagged the "zaza demon" account, possibly because the page had retweeted the congresswoman's post.
AFP could not independently verify who was behind the "zaza demon" account. But before deleting the profile, the account owner -- who previously went by "colton" and whose birth year was listed as 1997 -- said in several tweets that they were "not aoc."
"Im literally a white guy," one post said, according to an archived version of the page.
Twitter responded to an AFP inquiry with the poop emoji, an automatic response that owner Elon Musk launched in March 2023.
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about Ocasio-Cortez here, here, here and here.
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