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Lake Superior parody account more than quadrupled its following after supportingabortion rights. - "This lake vehemently stands with women having the right to choose," the account tweeted.
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The Supreme Court on Friday overturned its landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade and its 1992 counterpart Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which together safeguarded the right to abortion in the US for decades. Numerous parody or themed social media accounts posted their support for abortion rights following the decision, some albeit remaining in character.
The Lake Superior account Friday shared a short message following the Supreme Court ruling: "This lake vehemently stands with women having the right to choose." The tweet received more than 13,000 likes and 114,000 retweets as of Thursday morning.
When the conservative activist Tom Fitton responded, writing "Water is wet and abortion kills a human being," the Lake Superior account quickly retorted.
"Thomas, not even your first talking point is correct," the account tweeted. "Water is not wet, what water touches is wet. I'm confident I have a lot more experience in making things wet than you do."
That response has been so far shared more than 55,000 times. A screenshot of that response has been retweeted more than 71,000 times and liked more than 600,000 times.
The Lake Superior account has existed since 2009 and primarily features tweets about the lake itself, usually from the perspective of the body of water, which is the largest of the five Great Lakes.
"I do have a deep and intimate relationship with the lake," the man who runs the Lake Superior account told Insider. "I couldn't see the lake from my childhood home, but it was just a few hundred yards away, and now I interact with the lake almost each and every day."
The account, which is not officially affiliated with Lake Superior, has been promoted by several high profile names, which has boosted its following. Activist and famed "Star Trek" actor George Takei asked in a tweet if it was "possible to be best friends with a lake." Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, tweeted Tuesday that she was "proud" of the lake.
The identity of the man who has operated the account since 2010 is known by Insider, though he spoke to Insider on the condition that he wouldn't be named because he wanted "to stay in the voice of Lake Superior."
He said he started tweeting as Lake Superior because it was a "fun thing to take on." He's spent more than a decade tweeting as the lake, crafting a "sassy" voice that emphasizes his view that it's the "greatest lake."
The account is rarely political, though tweets about politics aren't off limits, he added. Most tweets about politics were more regional and focused on water policy and the environment, he told Insider.
"The initial tweet from Friday is definitely a little unorthodox for the account," he said. "But I figured that despite what the account means to me that this was an issue personally that's more important to me than the success of the account."
At first, he was worried he would lose followers after tweeting about the court's ruling. Instead, the account has grown rapidly. On Sunday, the parody account had about 47,000 followers, according to an archive by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. On Thursday, the account had more than 190,000 followers — increasing its audience four fold in less than a week.
He said he planned to continue tweeting as Lake Superior to give a voice to it, the other Great Lakes, and the scientists who do work to keep them healthy.
"Who are the people who speak up for water and the environmental issues for the Great Lakes? Any damage that has been done to Lake Superior has been the result of humans," he said. "Water can't vote, so it's up to humans to maintain and care for the Great Lakes."