Taylor Swift, the chart-topping singer known for high-profile spats with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry, has entered into a new feud â this time with a little-known blogger who suggested that Swift isnât doing enough to denounce neo-Nazi and white supremacist fans.
Swiftâs legal team to PopFront, a California-based blog with fewer than 300 Twitter followers, demanding a retraction of its article, which accuses the singer without any evidence of supporting the white supremacist movement.
The story, written by editor Meghan Herning, suggests that Swiftâs âLook What You Made Me Doâ music video contains imagery that is âsubtle, quiet white support of a racial hierarchy.â
She goes on to accuse Swift of not doing enough to personally distance herself from white nationalists.
âThere is no way to know for sure if Taylor is a Trump supporter or identifies with the white nationalist message, but her silence has not gone unnoticed.â
Lawyers representing Swift deny the storyâs premise. In a letter dated Oct. 27, Los Angeles-based law firm Venable LLP said the story âgoes to great lengths to portray Ms. Swift as some sort of white supremacist figurehead, which is a baseless fiction masquerading as fact and completely misrepresents Ms. Swift.â
The letter cites two previous stories by the Huffington Post and the Washington Post that similarly point out Swiftâs alt-right fan base, but include statements from
Swiftâs attorney denouncing the groups. Neither story includes a quote from Swift herself.
Swiftâs lawyer also claims PopFront is âsubstantially liable to Ms. Swift for defamation.â
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which has stepped in to defend Herning, says the blog post is an opinion piece that is protected by the First Amendment.
The group says Herningâs post was âa mix of political speech and critical commentaryâ and that Swiftâs lawyers were using âintimidation tacticsâ to try to bully the blogger â including a statement that the letter should not be republished under copyright law.
âNot in her wildest dreams can Ms. Swift use copyright law to suppress this exposure of a threat to constitutionally protected speech,â said ACLU attorney Matt Cagle in a statement.
For her part, Herning is standing behind her story.
âThe press should not be bullied by high-paid lawyers or frightened into submission by legal jargon,â Herning said in a statement. âThese scare tactics may have worked for Taylor in the past, but I am not backing down.â
News of the spat comes just days before Swiftâs new album, âReputation,â drops on Friday.