A Charleston County employee managed to cram Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Israel, and a border wall controversy into two posts accidentally published on an official county Facebook page this morning.

The two posts, which appeared before 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning, were published on the Charleston County Emergency Management Department’s official Facebook page for a short time before they were deleted.

Asked about the posts afterward, the county said in a statement that the posts were “not appropriate” for county social media, and that “the employee’s posting rights have been revoked.”

One link to a NASA article describing ice sheet growth in Antarctica was posted along with the caption, “AOC will be proposing legislation to stop this, doesn’t fit their agenda…”

“AOC” is reference to the latest scary liberal to land in Washington, freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist from New York City who is driving some conservatives absolutely crazy.

The second post, an image macro which uses a stolen Getty photo of a wall in the West Bank with the words “The Great Wall of Israel” along with a claim about “Muslim suicide bombings.”

When initial inquiries did not uncover that the posts came from a staffer, Charleston County spokesman Shawn Smetana asked Charleston City Paper, “Have you guys ever been ‘hacked’?”

A few hours later, the county issued the following statement:

“This morning, a staff member with Emergency Management shared two images on the department Facebook page by accident. This type of content is not appropriate for Charleston County social media platforms and the employee’s posting rights have been revoked.”

City Paper has requested further information about the individual and filed a records request to determine the name of the staffer, which the county declined to release.

The Charleston County Emergency Management Department describes its mission as to provide “leadership and assistance in an effort to reduce the loss of life and property in Charleston County from a variety of man-made and natural hazards through an effective emergency management program.”

Update: Charleston County PIO Shawn Smetana says Shawn Jones, chief of operations, was the employee who posted the conservative memes on the county Facebook account and had their social media posting privileges revoked on Jan. 31 2019.

Help keep the City Paper free.

No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.

Help support independent journalism by donating today.