Did Taylor Swift lose 17 million followers after posting an endorsement for Kamala Harris on her Instagram account? No, that's not true: Numbers show that Swift actually gained followers shortly after her endorsement. The account that posted this claim has "#Satire" and "#Parody" in their bio.
The claim appeared in a now-deleted post on X (archived here) on September 15, 2024. The post read:
Taylor Swift had 301 Million Instagram followers last week.
She endorsed Kamala Harris 5 days ago.
She now only has 284 Million followers.
She lost 17 Million followers by endorsing Kamala 🤡
This is what the post looked like before it was deleted:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Sep 15 13:38:13 2024 UTC)
The account that posted the claim did not give any evidence that Swift had lost followers. The post just included a screenshot of Swift's Instagram account. The bio of the X account (archived here) that posted this claim contains the description "#Satire" and "#Parody." It also claimed to be the "Golf version" of The Babylon Bee and The Onion, two other satirical sources. Lead Stories has debunked claims made by this account before. Here, here and here are just three examples. A screenshot of their X bio is below:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Sep 19 14:40:28 2024 UTC)
At the time of writing, Swift's verified account had 284 million followers. Social Blade, a website that tracks numerous data points for social media accounts, shows that on September 10, 2024, Swift gained 143,391 followers. September 10, 2024, was the day she posted (archived here) her endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Harris. Swift continued to gain followers until September 17, 2024. There is no indication she lost 17 million Instagram followers after she posted her endorsement. Evidence is below; highlighting by Lead Stories:
(Source: Social Blade screenshot taken on Thu Sep 19 14:06:29 2024 UTC)
Using keywords, Lead Stories searched in the Google News archive and found no credible reporting (archived here) to confirm the claim.
Other accounts have reposted the claim without a satire disclaimer. Here, here and here are some examples (archives for the last two examples are here and here).
We have contacted Swift's representatives and will update this article if a response is received.
More Lead Stories fact checks concerning Taylor Swift are here.
Other Lead Stories 2024 U.S. election fact checks are here.
