A rumor that pop star Taylor Swift lost 30 million social media followers after she endorsed Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race against Republican former President Donald Trump circulated online in September 2024. For example, the Facebook page America - Love It or Leave It
(Facebook/America - Love It or Leave It)
The caption for the post read:
That's an awful lot of people no longer buying all her merch or clicking on her monetized social media posts.
"It's likely costing her millions every day."
Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
The Facebook page posted the same claim again the next day, garnering a combined 4,300 reactions and more than 1,700 comments. A pinned comment under that post linked to a story by The Dunning-Kruger Times that began:
"I Wish I could Take it Back" — Taylor Swift Regrets Endorsing Harris and Walz
Taylor Swift is having second thoughts about her 'big endorsement' of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, according to a source. The source, who may or may not be credible or actually exist in nature, asked to remain anonymous, but we refused. His name is Chuck.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor about Swift as a factual recounting of real-life events. "Sometimes you get exactly what you ask for and deserve," one commenter wrote. "She can vote for whomever she wants to but should not be so naive and foolish to feel she should try to influence other voters with her leftist views."
However, there was no evidence of the singer losing followers after she endorsed Harris in an Instagram post on Sept. 10. In the post, she described herself as a "childless cat lady," a reference to a comment by Sen. JD Vance about "miserable cat ladies" and their influence on U.S. politics in 2021.
Rather, the rumor about Swift's allegedly declining social media popularity originated with America - Love It or Leave It — a Facebook page that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its page states:
A subsidiary of the America's Last Line of Defense network of trollery. Nothing on this page is real.
Furthermore, the Facebook page is part of America's Last Line of Defense — a network of websites and social media accounts that also describes its output satirical. The Dunning-Kruger Times' "About Us" page describes its content as follows:
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical.
ALLOD and its affiliates have a history of making up stories for social media engagement, sometimes relying on artificial-intelligence software to do its storytelling.
The fictional story about Swift's social media following spread as she faced criticism from Republicans for endorsing Harris. Similar social media posts falsely claimed Swift lost $125 million in brand deals and canceled multiple shows on her Eras Tour after the endorsement.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.