Music superstar Taylor Swift made headlines when she publicly endorsed the Democratic candidate for president, Vice-President Kamala Harris, in September and called out AI-generated posts that falsely claimed she had endorsed former president Donald Trump. After Harris's loss to Trump, posts online said Swift announced she would no longer perform in states that had voted for Trump. This is false. The original claim was posted on a website that publishes satire.
Swift is on the final leg of her massively successful Eras tour, which includes Canadian stops in Toronto starting on Nov. 14 and her final shows in Vancouver in December.
from Nov. 10, five days after the American election, claimed Swift announced her decision to "boycott red states" (those that voted for Trump) in response to Trump鈥檚 recent re-election. The post has been viewed more than 300,000 times as of publication.
Claim: False. This claim comes from a satire site.
The post links to a Nov. 9 on the satirical website , which describes itself in the section of the website as a site to "bring you the freshest fake news, some sassy analysis, and a good dose of satire."
The satirical article falsely claims that in an "emotional Instagram post" Swift said she can鈥檛 鈥渋n good conscience bring her music to places that support divisive and regressive leaders.鈥
It also quotes Swift as saying: "as someone who believes in equality and love, I simply can鈥檛 perform in states where those values aren鈥檛 upheld. I encourage all my fans to think about the world we鈥檙e building and how we can create spaces for unity and progress.鈥
It goes on to claim that hashtags like #ComeBackTaylor and #SwiftiesForAll were trending
The article ends with a note that reads, "NOTE: This is SATIRE, It鈥檚 Not True."
Satirical story spreads
Swift has 283 million followers on . She has posted five times since her post endorsing Harris on Sept. 10. All five of those posts are related to her ongoing tour. The post referenced in the satirical article does not exist.
The article's claim that the hashtags #ComeBackTaylor and #SwiftiesForAll were trending is also false. A search on X shows no results for . Any uses of are from well before the election.
The same day the article was posted on it was on a Facebook page that identifies itself as a "SpaceX Fanclub" with the description "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real." The edit history of the Facebook post shows that a reference to it being satire was added to the post about 30 hours after it initially went online.
A SpaceXMania-affiliated Facebook page, The Patriots Network, also , later updating the post with the word "SATIRE" and a link to the article. Its post had 141,000 reactions and 77,000 comments as of publication.
The references to satire were not enough to prevent people from believing what they read was based on reality. Many of the more than 1,500 comments under the SpaceX Fanclub Facebook post are from people celebrating Swift's fake boycott.
"In good conscience we don't want to buy tickets to your concerts so it works out for us!!" one user said.
"Good, I鈥檓 sure a lot of us feels as if she can leave the USA for good and we wouldn鈥檛 care. If you can鈥檛 love all Americans then you need to leave!!" said another.
In the days after its initial post about Swift, has continued to post similar satirical articles about other celebrity reactions to the coming Trump presidency.
is headlined Kid Rock Announces 'Red States Only' Rock the Country Tour: 'Gathering God-Fearing Patriots Only'. A different announces Beyonc茅 Excludes Red States from Tour, 鈥楾his Isn鈥檛 My America鈥.
On Nov. 11 the satirical website published headlined Blake Shelton and Kid Rock Launch 鈥楴on-Woke鈥 Red States Tour, 'Let鈥檚 Rock Red America', and also returned to satirizing Swift with a headlined Taylor Swift Faces $1 Billion Loss After Red States Boycott: 'Didn鈥檛 See This Coming'.
Sources
Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris can be found on Instagram ()
Claim posted on X ()
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Claim, noting it's satire, can be found on Facebook () and ()
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