Overview
- Behavioral-intelligence firm GUDEA analyzed more than 24,000 posts from 18,000 accounts across 14 platforms between October 4 and 18.
- Just 3.77% of accounts generated 28% of the album-related conversation, disproportionately pushing inflammatory narratives about Swift.
- Two activity spikes were identified: October 6–7 with roughly 35% bot-like posts, and October 13–14 after a lightning-bolt necklace merch drop with about 40% inauthentic posts and conspiracist content comprising 73.9% of volume.
- The tactic relied on provoking authentic users to mock or refute the false claims, which increased their visibility through engagement algorithms.
- GUDEA found overlap with accounts tied to a separate Blake Lively astroturf effort and has not attributed the operators; Rolling Stone reported the findings this week, and Swift’s representative did not immediately comment.