UPDATE: Jan. 6, 2015, 2:27 PM ET
A Twitter account claiming to be Oregon militia occupation ringleader Ammon Bundy was revealed as a hoax to punk the mainstream media, the account tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
@Ammon_Bundy tweeted: “Now that I proved the MSM will fall for anything you can all follow me on my other acct. @SaintNegro29.” The account then retweeted racist taunts from another user.
The unveiling came after much coverage around a tweet purportedly from Bundy comparing the self-styled militiamen to famed civil rights activist Rosa Parks, which was met with a torrent of criticism and coverage from numerous media organizations reporting the tweets had come from the real Bundy.
“I don’t have a tweet account, but from what I hear he is doing a pretty good job,” Bundy said in press conference on Wednesday.
Reporters on the scene in Burns, Oregon had earlier cast doubts that Bundy was running the account himself.
People, Ammon Bundy is not operating a twitter account. I stood with him last night as tweets supposedly from him went out.
— tonydokoupil (@tonydokoupil) January 6, 2016
In an email to TPM, a Twitter spokesman said the company’s policy is not to comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons, but sent along a link to a Gizmodo story that contends the account is fake and mocks media outlets treating it otherwise.