A post shared on Twitter purports an artificial intelligence (AI) Twitter bot account posed as a former worker on President Biden’s campaign.
This so-called ‘Erica Marsh’ verified account is a fake AI bot account of someone who claims to have worked on the Obama campaign, and is used to post outrageous things that right-wingers can repost and say, ‘This is what progressives believe.’ Block this fraud as I did long ago. pic.twitter.com/3frsQBxvR5
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 29, 2023
Verdict: True
A Federal Election Commission (FEC) spokesperson said a disbursement search did not yield any results for the purported campaign worker in an email to Check Your Fact.
Fact Check:
Twitter suspended an account using the name “Erica Marsh” Wednesday, according to The Hill. The account, which posted left-leaning content, gained more than 130,000 followers, The Washington Post reported.
“This so-called ‘Erica Marsh’ verified account is a fake AI bot account of someone who claims to have worked on the Obama campaign, and is used to post outrageous things that right-wingers can repost and say, ‘This is what progressives believe.’ Block this fraud as I did long ago,” the Twitter post, viewed over 700,000 times, purports.
The post includes a screenshot from the account, whose handle is @ericareport reacting to a recent Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in college and university admissions.
The account described itself as having served as a field organizer to elect Biden, according to Lead Stories. The account also claimed to be a volunteer at former President Obama’s Obama Foundation, the outlet indicated. (RELATED: Joe Biden Makes Claims About Guns, NRA, And Federal Deficit At Recent Campaign Event)
However, a LinkedIn keyword search does not generate any results for an individual named Erica Marsh, who worked on Biden’s campaign or volunteered at the Obama Foundation. A Twitter thread posted by @PoliticsVerse shows a previous profile photo used by the @ericareport account that appears to be a stock image taken from a German website. The same thread also reveals that the @ericareport account has repeatedly been fact-checked on Twitter for publishing false information.
BOMBSHELL THREAD:
The account @ericareport lifted ‘her’ Twitter avi from a German website. It’s a stock photo. This isn’t my only evidence to support my claims though. pic.twitter.com/5icoJjFVNK
— PoliticsVerse 🇺🇸 (@PoliticsVerse_) January 4, 2023
Furthermore, “Erica Marsh” is the name of a character on the CW drama series, “One Tree Hill,” Lead Stories reported.
Christian Hilland, a spokesperson for the FEC, said a disbursement search did not yield any results for a campaign worker named Erica Marsh.
“A disbursement search of Biden for President and the DNC committees did not yield any results for an ‘Erica Marsh’ payee,” Hilland said. Hilland included the link to the disbursement search in an email to Check Your Fact.
Check Your Fact has also contacted the Democratic National Committee, the White House, and the Obama Foundation for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.