Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit back at Elon Musk after the billionaire accused her of "flirting" with him on Twitter.

On Friday, the 32-year-old New York representative took to Twitter with an apparent aim at the Tesla CEO's recent purchase of the social media platform.

Writing to her 12.9 million followers, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. tweeted: "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."

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AOC's tweet was eventually seen by 50-year-old Musk, who playfully responded: "Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy".

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As to be expected with Twitter, the bizarre interaction blew up, and soon enough, the hashtag '#AOCLovesElon' started trending. Memes mocking the politician were also widely shared:

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Many of the tweets poked fun at some of Ocasio-Cortez's previous tweets, in which she claimed that Republicans were mad because they couldn't date her and it was their "deranged sexual frustrations" that were causing their "fixation" with her.

Now, AOC has once again taken shots at the SpaceX founder - calling out his "massive ego complex".

The New York representative had initially responded to Musk's tweeting accusing her of flirting with him, saying that she was actually referring to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg when she was calling out a "billionaire with an ego problem" that "unilaterally controls a massive communication platform".

However, per Bloomberg, Ocasio-Cortez deleted this response around one minute later.

But when a screenshot of the reply was shared by writer and podcast host David Bixenspan, AOC delivered yet another burn to Musk, saying: "Like I said, ego problems."

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And when why fan called her out on deleting the Zuckerberg reply, Ocasio-Cortez provided the following explanation:

"I try to avoid giving people with massive ego complexes like this the attention and QTs/replies they crave and are seeking (when I can help it)."

Of course, it would seem that Musk would have no contention with any criticism being thrown his way on Twitter, as he has repeatedly touted his desire to make the platform supportive of "free speech".

In a recent tweet, Musk clarified his position on free speech, writing:

"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law.

"I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.

"If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.

"Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people."

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In fact, on April 25, the billionaire maintained: "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."

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In an official statement announcing the historic acquisition, Musk said: "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

Expanding on his plans for the platform, Musk also mentioned in his purchase statement: "I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans."

Featured image credit: The Photo Access / Alamy

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hits back at Elon Musk's 'massive ego complex' after he accuses her of 'hitting on him'