Tweet from 'Ammon Bundy' likening himself to Rosa Parks sparks intrigue

It is believed the twitter account for the militia leader is fake

Ammon Bundy has said he and his supporters will stay at the federal property for as long as it takes (AP)

On reflection, it all seemed a bit too strange to be true.

One was an unarmed young black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Alabama, an action that helped provide momentum to the movement that eventually ended formal racial segregation in the US.

The other is the white son of an infamous right-wing rancher who thinks he should not have to pay taxes, whose armed militia have seized a government compound, angered the local people they claimed to be supporting, and have sparked disquiet across the country.

So when someone claiming to be Ammon Bundy, one of the three Bundy brothers who have seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, tweeted that he should be seen in the same light as the civil rights icon Rosa Parks, people took note.

“We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did,” said “Mr Bundy”.

”Rosa Parks seated toward the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. (Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

“We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanise us and destroy our freedom.”

Indeed, the reaction was so strident and vociferous that the name Rosa Parks trended on twitter.

Now it transpired that Mr Bundy did not say that, because he is not on twitter.

The website, Factually, drew attention to a tweet by MSNBC reporter

Tony Dokoupil, who has been reporting from Burns and who said the tweet about Parks had not come from the rancher’s son.

“People, Ammon Bundy is not operating a twitter account,” he wrote.

“I stood with him last night as tweets supposedly from him went out.”