Taylor Swift’s new app, The Swift Life, welcomes new users into the fan-driven social network with a promising directive. “Help make this a safe and inclusive place for everyone to enjoy,” the main screen reads. “If you see anything inappropriate, including instances of bullying or harassment, please report it.”
The app failed.
The Swift Life was intended to provide Swifties with a platform to access exclusive videos, news updates, and “Taymojis,” as well as an outlet to communicate with other diehard fans. But since its Friday launch, The Swift Life has become a breeding ground for pro-Trump trolls, who swarmed the discussion board with discriminatory remarks, according to a new report from the Daily Beast.
https://twitter.com/Mind_Twist_You/status/942020875964043264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Ftrump-supporters-invade-taylor-swifts-new-app
One user named Britt wrote:
IM NOT HERE TO PLEASE ANYONE IF IT GOES AGAINST WHAT I BELIEVE AND AT THE TIME I FELT LIKE MY HUSBAND WHO IS IN THE MILITARY IS SAFER UNDER TRUMPS LEADERSHIP THAN HILARYS AS SHES DONE SOMETHINGS I DONT AGREE WITH WHEN IT COMES TO THE SAFETY OF OUR TROOPS. SORRY BUT I WOULD RATHER FEEL LIKE MY HUSBAND IS SAFE. I WOULDVE VOTED FOR ANYONE BUT THOSE TWO IF I COULD HAVE BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY IT CAME DOWN TO WHAT I FELT WAS BEST. I DONT NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF BUT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR REASONS OTHER THAN TRUMP BEING A BIGOTED, SEXIST HOMEPHOBE. [sic]
Other Swift Life users have disavowed these comments, with one tweeting, “We don’t claim apps full of trump supporters.” Still, the commenters led to further remarks from Britt like, “I just don’t accept gays lesbians and bisexuals.”
Members of the Swift fandom are no strangers to these sorts of controversies. In September, culture website PopFront published an editorial that explored the connections between Swift’s music and white supremacists and criticized the star for remaining silent on hot-button political issues. Her legal team later sent a cease-and-desist letter to PopFront editor Meghan Herning, a move that earned the condemnation of the ACLU.
“Intimidation tactics like these are unacceptable,” digital rights attorney Matt Cagle wrote. “Not in her wildest dreams can Ms. Swift use copyright law to suppress this exposure of a threat to constitutionally protected speech.”
Non-Swifties may find the arguments on The Swift Life morbidly hilarious, and they’re certainly indicative of how civilized discourse has fallen by the wayside in 2017. Still, if you separate the conflict from the celebrity attached to it, it’s disheartening that fans can’t even find a safe space to champion their favorite artist on an app developed precisely for that purpose.
Swift said it best herself on her latest album, Reputation: This is why we can’t have nice things.
H/T The Daily Beast