X

AOC's Among Us stream on Twitch nets $200K for coronavirus relief

A livestream on the gaming site, featuring US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, brings in money for eviction defense and food pantries, among other things.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
Credentials
  • Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.
See full bio
Edward Moyer
2 min read
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

 Tom Williams/Getty Images

When it comes to Twitch , it seems AOC is doing A-OK. US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York returned to the gaming site Friday for a livestream of her and others playing the hugely popular social deduction game Among Us and in the process helped raise $200,000 for people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We did it!" AOC said in a tweet. "$200k raised in one livestream (on a whim!) for eviction defense, food pantries, and more. This is going to make such a difference for those who need it most right now. Thank you all." 

The five-hour-plus livestream followed one from late last month, in which AOC played Among Us in an effort to get out the vote for Election Day. That stream, which saw AOC gaming alongside fellow Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, became one of the most watched in Twitch's history.

Read more: How to play Among Us online, and why it's suddenly so popular

Ocasio-Cortez's Twitch efforts are just the latest example of politicians adopting web-era approaches to reach new audiences. Last June, during his presidential campaign, near-octogenarian Bernie Sanders launched a Twitch channel, hoping to tap the internet-platform-du-jour to get his message out to younger voters.

And earlier this month, after the presidential contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump was called in favor of Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris posted a web-casual smartphone video on Twitter showing her dialing up Biden to congratulate him.

Perhaps most famously (or infamously), Trump has used Twitter over the last four years to sidestep mainstream media and try to take hold of the political narrative.