New findings have shown that a coordinated online attack was launched to accuse Taylor Swift of Nazi connections, and fans inadvertently may have helped it get momentum.
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The data comes as an behavioural intelligence platform driven by AI, Gudea, recently shared a report showing how there was a massive spike in posts across social media, accusing the pop star of subtly making dogwhistle references across her new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’.
The posts claimed that one of the lightning bolt necklaces in her merchandise line was designed to resemble an SS symbol, fixated on the out-of-context use of the word “savage” in lyrics in one song, and more. Gudea’s findings shared that, between the album release date (October 4) up until October 18, there were over 24,000 posts like this from over 18,000 accounts.
These accounts spread across 14 social media platforms, and despite making up just 3.7 per cent of accounts, they managed to drive 28 per cent of all Taylor Swift-related discussion online. On October 6 and 7, it also appears that 35 per cent of posts came from bots.
As reported by The Guardian, the false claims put forward fed into the conspiracy theory that Swift is pushing “trad” or conservative values with her engagement to Travis Kelce, and has alleged ties to the MAGA movement – despite the singer publicly endorsing Kamala Harris‘ candidacy during the most recent US presidential election.
Gudea went on to highlight that the online attack against Swift in October launched on places like 4chan, and soon went more mainstream by making their way over to platforms like X/Twitter, and getting more momentum thats to Swifties hitting out at the inaccurate claim.
GUDEA reports that a cluster of bot accounts launched an online smear campaign against Taylor Swift, spreading conspiracy theories linking her to Donald Trump and Nazism.
: https://t.co/QnrwqZ4TZ9 pic.twitter.com/LHJS9zk6mF
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 9, 2025
“This demonstrates how a strategically seeded falsehood can convert into widespread authentic discourse, reshaping public perception even when most users do not believe the originating claim,” the outlet shared. Gudea founder and CEO Keith Presley also told Rolling Stone that rage-baiting fans is “part of the goal for these types of narratives, for whoever is pushing them. Especially with these inflammatory ones – that’s going to get rewarded by the algorithm. You’ll see the influencers jump on first, because it’s going to get them clicks.”
While Gudea has said that it was unable to identify those behind the online attack against the ‘Bad Blood’ singer, the findings did uncover a “significant user overlap between accounts pushing the Swift ‘Nazi’ narrative and those active in a separate astroturf campaign attacking Blake Lively.” The latter refers to the backlash faced by the Gossip Girl actor and close friend of Swift, relating to the ongoing lawsuit where she accused director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment after working with him on It Ends With Us.
Gudea shared that there were 2,395 accounts that were involved in both campaigns to damage the women’s reputations, and the data “reveals a cross-event amplification network, one that disproportionately influences multiple celebrity-driven controversies and injects misinformation into otherwise organic conversations”.
While it isn’t exactly clear why the misinformation campaign was launched against the pop icon or who was responsible for it, Gudea’s head of customer success Georgia Paul questioned if the online attack could be something of a test-run for other, more intense smear campaigns in the future.
“There might be other nefarious actors, not U.S.-based, who have reasons to see, ‘If I can move the fan base for Taylor Swift — an icon who is this political figure, in a way — does that mean I can do it in other places?’” she speculated (via Consequence).
In September 2024, Swift threw her support behind Harris amid the presidential campaign – which was ultimately won by Donald Trump – and said that she was doing so “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
Swift also noted that she had been made aware of the use of AI in Trump campaigns– which he claims he had no part in – to falsify her support of the his candidacy. “It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she said. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
In June that year, Trump made headlines when he described Swift as “unusually beautiful” and questioned whether her political stance is “just an act”.
Before the 2024 campaign, Swift broke years of political silence in 2018 to back Democrat candidates Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper in the US midterm elections, and asked her fans to register to vote. Before then, she faced criticism for not speaking out against Trump ahead of the 2016 US presidential election.
Going into 2025, Trump took back any positive comments he once said about the singer and wrote on his Truth Social account: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’”. That came in reference to posts he made last year over Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
He also hit out at Bruce Springsteen and declared that he “never liked” his music, adding that The Boss was “dumb as a rock” and a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker”.
The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) then issued a statement defending Swift and Springsteen, and said that they “will not remain silent as two of our members —are singled out and personally attacked by the President of the United States”.
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