WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:
- Facebook is currently under scrutiny for its handling of political information and advertisements leading up to the 2020 election.
- As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was being grilled in Congress, a new meme featuring freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has emerged.
- A now-viral photo of AOC showed her making an Italian hand gesture while grilling Zuckerberg, prompting netizens to make a meme of “Italian AOC.”
Facebook is still under scrutiny for its handling of political information and advertisements leading up to the 2020 election. And on Wednesday of last week, members of the Congress seemed dissatisfied with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony.
But one trivial thing that happened during the hours-long grilling session of the Facebook mogul has brought the online world together.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Zuckerberg had a tense exchange, during which the freshman congresswoman (who is not Italian) made the world-famous Italian hand gesture while talking. The screenshot of her hand gesture soon spread online and has since become a meme.
Take a look at some very creative captions:
*when the mozzarell is fresh* pic.twitter.com/LiM4OQwGD7
— mike mulloy (@fakemikemulloy) October 28, 2019
Whaddya mean you call it sauce? #ItalianAOC pic.twitter.com/wxpOPg7uYl
— 🎃 spooky szn clarissa the occultist witch 🎃 (@heckin_clarissa) October 30, 2019
When Zuckerberg’s bein a wise guy and you gtta make him capische #ItalianAOC pic.twitter.com/aSZAD6gJh9
— Dalton Verwolf (@lKyosukel) October 29, 2019
The hashtag #ItalianAOC became a trending topic on Twitter — a since-deleted account was even created to consolidate the memes.
Italian AOC, a meme so good you can’t fuggetaboudit https://t.co/CmjtbO5WdO
— Christopher Aparicio (@Christo31624404) October 28, 2019
Zuckerberg’s six-hour hearing was his first testimony before Congress since the spring of 2018. The social media giant, which counts Instagram and WhatsApp as its subsidiaries, has been under fire during the recent months for planning to launch its own digital currency, known as Libra, which was questioned by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
The founder explained at his testimony that the company now plans on “delaying its launch until it has fully addressed U.S. regulatory concerns.”
He continued, “I believe this is something that needs to get built, but I understand we’re not the ideal messenger right now. We’ve faced a lot of issues over the past few years.”
Source: AOL
