by When Taylor Swift endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, she used Instagram and Twitter to make her announcement.
When she endorsed Kamala Harris this week, she used Instagram exclusively.
You can guess what has changed in the last four years. Hint: Rhymes with “Elon Musk.”
Let’s say you’re one of the most popular people in the world and you have something important to say. Where do you say it?
If it’s 2024 and you’re Taylor Swift, this one’s a no-brainer: Of course, you’re using Instagram, where she showed her support for Kamala Harris on Tuesday night.
This is partly an endorsement of Meta’s photo/video platform, where she has 283 million followers.
But looking at the glass as half empty, it’s also a commentary on the state of social media: Where else could Swift have gone?
In 2020, when Swift supported the Biden-Harris ticket, she used Instagram And the service that was then called Twitter.
But Swift knows for sure that if she used Twitter this time, new owner Elon Musk, who has renamed the service “X,” would view her use of his platform as a personal victory. (And that’s exactly what his team did after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race via Twitter in July.)
Swift still uses Twitter, where she has 95 million followers, mainly to celebrate the release of her albums and tour stops.
But one can imagine a whole host of reasons why she wouldn’t use Twitter to make political statements today, and they all have to do with Musk. The richest man in the world is a very active owner, and it’s impossible to separate his actions, behavior, and worldviews from his service. Not to mention the fact that he has been openly supporting Trump since July.
And what about Facebook? Swift has 80 million followers there too. But Facebook is where the parents of Taylor Swift’s fans hang out. It’s not her thing, which explains why she hasn’t posted anything there since April.
And while we know Swift loves TikTok—so much so that she used the video platform when her music label was still at odds with its owners—it’s not really a place for typing and reading.
So it’s Instagram by choice. And by default.
Two more brief thoughts on this:
You know how Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his surrogates keep saying they don’t want their platforms to get involved in politics? Swift’s post is a reminder that while platforms can set up algorithms, incentives, and guardrails to guide user behavior, users will still steer the platforms in directions they like. For better or for worse.
Swift’s lack of Twitter usage must be annoying for Musk. Before purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk pointed out that celebrities with large Twitter followings stopped using the platform and said he would change that once he owned the platform. Instead, his acquisition caused many celebrities to leave his service. Now, instead of Swift using Twitter to make headlines, he is forced to make headlines by responding to Swift with a creepy offer/joke to impregnate her:
Well, Taylor… you win… I will give you a child and protect your cats with my life
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 11 September 2024
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