Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) complained on Twitter this week about modifications made to the site by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk. She received a response from the world’s richest man.
AOC’s comments come after Musk announced that he would charge consumers $8 a month for a number of features, which sparked widespread outrage across the political spectrum for a variety of reasons.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” AOC tweeted at the start of the week.
“Your comment is appreciated,” Musk said, “now pay $8.”
Musk also reacted with an image of a $58 sweater that Ocasio-Cortez sells online.
Musk answered with a meme as well:
Ocasio-Cortez also got into it with David Sacks, a West Coast-based venture capitalist, who responded to AOC by writing, “Why aren’t [The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic] free? Their billionaire owners should stop being greedy and give us those products for free.”
AOC criticized the response: “Are you seriously equating an app where people are torrenting racial slurs at an accelerated clip with the New York Times?”
“Also fyi, legacy newspapers actually care about verifying newsworthy sources. And they don’t charge their journalists/creators for ‘priority’ placement.”
“As for billionaire ownership of our news sources, that is a legitimate problem! Market concentration of media is a huge issue,” AOC continued. “Hope you’re using your power to stop private equity gutting of local newsrooms while supporting nonprofit and co-op modeled news outlets as well.”
Musk has previously insulted AOC on Twitter in response to her attacks.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted back in April, after Musk announced he would buy the platform: “Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special.”
Musk responded, “Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy.”
Musk’s remark alluded to a news story from late last year in which Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at opponents online after being caught out in Florida without a mask.
According to photographs obtained by the publication, Ocasio-Cortez was “seated outside Doraku Sushi and Izakaya in Miami Beach Thursday afternoon, raising a cocktail in one hand and checking her phone in another.”
“If Republicans are mad they can’t date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend’s feet,” Ocasio-Cortez responded to one of the critics calling her out. “Ya creepy weirdos.”