Did Taylor Swift’s team fund the study exposing the Nazi smear campaign against her? Blake Lively gets dragged into controversy after new claim
Shivani Negi | Dec 11, 2025, 17:18 IST
( Image credit : X/@taylorswift13 | Taylor Swift was accused of promoting Nazi propaganda with her TLOAS merch )
Taylor Swift faced a wave of online claims, from Nazi imagery to trad-wife and MAGA accusations, after The Life of a Showgirl release.
Soon after releasing her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift found herself caught in a wave of online claims accusing her of promoting Nazi propaganda, sparked largely by a silver lightning-bolt necklace in her merch line. A new report now suggests those accusations weren’t organic at all but part of a coordinated effort to damage her reputation. And just as that was settling, another rumour popped up claiming Swift's own team funded the study that exposed the smear campaign. The internet, of course, is already picking apart who actually benefits from this new twist.
After The Life of a Showgirl was released in early October, a viral online controversy began over a piece of Taylor Swift’s merch, a silver “Opalite” necklace with multiple lightning-bolt shapes. Some users on TikTok and fringe forums (like 4chan and similar sites) claimed the lightning bolts looked like SS symbols and hinted at Nazi or white-supremacist dog whistles, especially with repeated bolt shapes that some interpreted as coded references. Following the backlash, the necklace was removed from her website.
Weeks after the claims surfaced, new analysis by the behavioural intelligence firm GUDEA looked at more than 24,000 social media posts from over 18,000 accounts after The Life of a Showgirl dropped. It found that much of the online buzz accusing Swift of using Nazi imagery or signalling extreme politics wasn’t organi, implying it was pushed by a small group of coordinated, “inauthentic” accounts that behaved more like bots than real people.
The report further added that this tactic is “narrative manipulation,” where a few accounts seed false or extreme ideas to get real users talking and boost visibility. As the researchers put it, “the pattern of inauthentic provocation [to] authentic user discourse is a hallmark of successful narrative manipulation.”
According to a new rumour spreading on X and TikTok, the A-list singer’s own team allegedly paid for the study that exposed the coordinated Nazi-imagery smear campaign. The claim suggests the magazine covering the findings simply trusted the source and assumed the research was legitimate. The blind item, shared on the popular gossip site Crazy Days and Nights and the TikTok page Celebrity.blindtea, didn’t mention the 35-year-old singer by name, but the references were obvious enough that fans immediately connected the dots.
As the rumour gained traction, some fans even started wondering if Blake Lively, once one of Swift’s closest friends, could have been involved in the supposed effort to damage her image. But so far, there are no reports confirming any of these claims.
Even beyond the wild Nazi stuff, the Midnights crooner has been dragged online with claims she’s secretly pushing trad-wife vibes thanks to her new song Wi$h Li$t about settling down and starting a family, accused of cosying up to MAGA culture and white-supremacy themes in lyrics and imagery.
Some trolls even tried to paint her as a conservative figure or a racist just because of how they felt about her lyrics, despite no real evidence backing those wild takes. Despite the controversy, The Life of a Showgirl smashed records, moving about 4.002 million album-equivalent units in its first week in the U.S., overtaking Adele’s first-week haul for 25.
How did Taylor Swift nazi claims emerge?
After The Life of a Showgirl was released in early October, a viral online controversy began over a piece of Taylor Swift’s merch, a silver “Opalite” necklace with multiple lightning-bolt shapes. Some users on TikTok and fringe forums (like 4chan and similar sites) claimed the lightning bolts looked like SS symbols and hinted at Nazi or white-supremacist dog whistles, especially with repeated bolt shapes that some interpreted as coded references. Following the backlash, the necklace was removed from her website.
( Image credit : Reddit | The necklace that sparked Nazi imagery claims )
What did the new report reveal?
Weeks after the claims surfaced, new analysis by the behavioural intelligence firm GUDEA looked at more than 24,000 social media posts from over 18,000 accounts after The Life of a Showgirl dropped. It found that much of the online buzz accusing Swift of using Nazi imagery or signalling extreme politics wasn’t organi, implying it was pushed by a small group of coordinated, “inauthentic” accounts that behaved more like bots than real people.
The report further added that this tactic is “narrative manipulation,” where a few accounts seed false or extreme ideas to get real users talking and boost visibility. As the researchers put it, “the pattern of inauthentic provocation [to] authentic user discourse is a hallmark of successful narrative manipulation.”
Did Taylor Swift pay for the study?
According to a new rumour spreading on X and TikTok, the A-list singer’s own team allegedly paid for the study that exposed the coordinated Nazi-imagery smear campaign. The claim suggests the magazine covering the findings simply trusted the source and assumed the research was legitimate. The blind item, shared on the popular gossip site Crazy Days and Nights and the TikTok page Celebrity.blindtea, didn’t mention the 35-year-old singer by name, but the references were obvious enough that fans immediately connected the dots.
( Image credit : X | New blind claims Taylor Swift's team funded the study to clear Nazi claims )
As the rumour gained traction, some fans even started wondering if Blake Lively, once one of Swift’s closest friends, could have been involved in the supposed effort to damage her image. But so far, there are no reports confirming any of these claims.
( Image credit : Instagram/@blakelively | Some fans wonder if Blake Lively was behind the coordinated smear campaign amid alleged Taylor Swift fallout )
Other allegations faced by Swift after TLOAS release
Even beyond the wild Nazi stuff, the Midnights crooner has been dragged online with claims she’s secretly pushing trad-wife vibes thanks to her new song Wi$h Li$t about settling down and starting a family, accused of cosying up to MAGA culture and white-supremacy themes in lyrics and imagery.
( Image credit : X/@taylornation | Online trolls threw everything at Taylor Swift: from trad-wife talk to MAGA and white-supremacy claims )
Some trolls even tried to paint her as a conservative figure or a racist just because of how they felt about her lyrics, despite no real evidence backing those wild takes. Despite the controversy, The Life of a Showgirl smashed records, moving about 4.002 million album-equivalent units in its first week in the U.S., overtaking Adele’s first-week haul for 25.