It’s nice to know that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is focused on the important things — like blocking people on social media.
Ocasio-Cortez has filed legal paperwork defending the practice of blocking users from her social media account using special weasel language about the technicalities of her online account — the irony here is that she is defending the very thing she accused Donald Trump of doing.
The self-described socialist was sued by “comedian” Alex Stein earlier this year when she blocked him on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Stein called her his “favorite big booty Latina” on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
“She wants to kill babies but she’s still beautiful. You look very beautiful in that dress. You look very sexy. Look at that booty on AOC,” Stein catcalled. “Look how sexy she looks in that dress. Oooh, I love it AOC. Hot, hot, hot like a tamale.”
Here is a video he posted of the incident. I was actually walking over to deck him because if no one will protect us then I’ll do it myself but I needed to catch a vote more than a case today pic.twitter.com/RdwCNBDIBb
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 14, 2022
The Democratic lawmaker argued in a new court filing that she’s able to block Stein from her personal account because it is not run by government employees, according to Politico.
In effect, AOC claims that she blocked Stein from her personal account, not her official government one — because it “serves the significant interest of the Congresswoman, as a public official and as a private citizen, in protecting herself from abuse and harassment absolutely unrelated to any viewpoint or expression of opinion of any kind,” the outlet reported.
Ocasio-Cortez was sued back in 2019 after a federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling that then-President Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on X.
The lawsuits were filed by Dov Hikind, a former New York state assemblyman, and Joseph Saladino, a social media personality who goes by the name Joey Salads.
The Democratic lawmaker essentially made the same argument then that because @AOC is her personal account, it’s not subject to the same First Amendment protections as her government account. At the same time, she was using her personal account to share information about congressional hearings, discuss legislation, and hold substantive debates on policy issues.
AOC reached a settlement with Hikind in November 2019, one day before she was set to testify, removing the block and offering an apology.
“I have reconsidered my decision to block Dov Hikind from my Twitter account,” she said in a statement. “Mr. Hikind has a First Amendment right to express his views and should not be blocked for them.”
The case by Saladino was dismissed due to lack of action.