An AI-assisted analysis found that internet rumors claiming Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album subtly promoted white supremacy were driven by bot-like accounts and a handful of bad actors.
Researchers at Gudea studied 24,679 social media posts from 18,213 users on 14 platforms between Oct. 4, the day after the album’s release, and Oct. 18. They found that a small number of dubious accounts drove narratives that sucked in social media users wanting to participate in a heated discussion that seemingly lacked merit.
“While the majority of users behaved typically, 3.77% exhibited non-typical behavior amplifiers and accounted for 28% of the conversation volume, suggesting coordinated influence,” Gudea’s report concluded.
That small percentage of users “disproportionately shaped discourse volume” and primarily pushed conspiracy theories that Swift’s latest album features Nazi symbolism and ties her to the MAGA movement.
In a spike that took place between Oct. 6 and 7, researchers found that 35% of the posts they studied came from bot-like and other “non-typical” accounts.
The “inauthentic Taylor Swift is a Nazi narrative” prompted secondary, authentic conversations comparing Swift to her music-world antagonist Kanye West, who has expressed pro-Nazi sentiments, Gudea found. The researchers also concluded that social media users who don’t wittingly engage in conspiracy theories drove traffic by joining in the conversation, even if only to defend Swift.
The report didn’t identify any specific individuals or groups who may have been responsible for disparaging the 35-year-old singer.
Gudea founder and CEO Keith Presley told Rolling Stone that controversial narratives like the one about Swift may be planted in bad faith, but grow organically as social media users join the conversation and platform algorithms amplify discord.
“You’ll see the influencers jump on first, because it’s going to get them clicks,” he said in a story posted Tuesday.
Swift’s team in 2017 threatened to sue a blogger who claimed white supremacists identified with the pop star’s persona and challenged her to clarify her position, according to an ACLU response to Swift’s attorneys. She called white supremacy “repulsive” in a 2019 Rolling Stone interview.
Swift endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who is Black and Indian, in the 2024 presidential election.