Viral-tweet-spawning Twitter account @ericareport has been suspended by the platform for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed. Many suspect the account, which was created in September 2022, was phony and was not, in fact, representing a real liberal tweeter named Erica Marsh.
Despite Erica Marsh’s account having a paid Blue checkmark, which Twitter owner Elon Musk has claimed is a way to cut down on bot activity, evidence for the existence of an actual Erica Marsh remained scant for the duration of the account’s run. She never spoke or showed her face in video, and the handful of images @ericareport portrayed to be her face were speculated to be either digital manipulations, photos belonging to someone else entirely or stock images.
Given her account history was devoid of personally revealing information and was predominantly focused on producing tweets circling liberal talking points and stances, a common theory is that @ericareport may have been a bot or troll account either designed to agitate members of various political camps or, alternatively, collect data and analytics on Twitter users who interacted with Erica Marsh’s tweets.
An example of a recent Marsh tweet that lends credence to the troll theory (and may highlight why the account was ultimately suspended) came Thursday concerning the Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action ruling: “Today’s Supreme Court decision is a direct attack on Black people. No Black person will be able to succeed in a merit-based system which is exactly why affirmative-action based programs were needed. Today’s decision is a TRAVESTY!!!”
Other account highlights include a tweet from last month in which, according to The Washington Post, she said she still wears “2 masks whenever I go out and support Ukraine,” and from last year: “A MAGA just told me that my PROUD DEMOCRAT followers are bots,” she tweeted last year. “Let’s prove him wrong — where are my allies at?”
Twitter responded to TheWrap’s request for comment regarding @ericareport’s suspension with its customary poop emoji. The owner of the @ericareport Twitter account could not be reached for comment.
Regardless of whether Erica Marsh was, indeed, a bot account, it’s no secret that Twitter is full of very real humans constantly tweeting politically charged and divisive content at each other. Even Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, gets in on the action from time to time.
