The strange case of “Erica Marsh“ has been solved.
The recent April celebrity, established on Twitter as a liberal account, who went viral for her political claims has been revealed to be a non–existent person. “Erica Marsh“ was a field organizer for the Joe Biden campaign and an Obama Foundation volunteer with a purported perspective on modern politics that sparked massive attention.
So is this confirmation that Erica Marsh was fake/a bot? pic.twitter.com/zLMZSz42ZG
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) July 2, 2023
One of her most well-known posts which references the defeat of Chicago‘s first black female mayor and LGBTQ mayor, Lori Lightfoot, speaks to lingering racism and homophobia in America‘s major cities. She also posted a controversial statement claiming a modern-day comparison of Hitler to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and comparing the Republican party to that of the Nazis.
These uncompromising statements raised a few eyebrows and made people question the background of the account. Upon closer inspection, Greg Boulden uncovered the truth. The account was linked to a Belgian Firm, which upon further research, has acted as a troll farm threatening a lawsuit against those who acknowledged the truth behind the account.
“Erica Marsh“ was nothing more than a fabricated name and persona, but it seemed as though progressive America fell for the tricks of the anonymous Belgian Firm. After Boulden‘s investigation, the account was quickly suspended by Twitter.
John Matarese, a media operations and fraud intelligence specialist at ZeroFOX, states, “they have to create real–seeming accounts using names and photos of real people, and even create complete fake backstories. That’s because people are still very skeptical, and it takes time to generate real engagement. Once the account has been up and running for a while, it’s easier to start rolling out more suspicious or questionable content.”
Marese‘s statement provides a sense of clarity when understanding how and why someone would create a fake account.
Whether it was for monetary gain, political gain or pure entertainment, the “Erica Mars“ case proves how easy it is to manipulate many people with stories and false identities aimed to gain attention. This situation further emphasizes the lack of critical and logical thinking when consuming media information in this particular moment in time. It now appears more important than ever to look deeper into information sources before believing and endorsing false claims.
This person does not exist. I repeat. Does NOT exist. This is election interference starting early. I will not even link to their page because it is dangerous to continue to follow and engage. This is an account bot linked to Belgium.
This also shows how easy our elections are… pic.twitter.com/i2EivbJIQe
— Greg Boulden Host of America Emboldened (@RealGregBoulden) July 2, 2023
