Unmasking the Taylor Swift ‘Psyop Plot’
PLUS: Why anti-vaxxers are big fans of “The Brady Bunch,” Russian disinformers are big fans of YouTube, and Iranian disinformers are big fans of Photoshop
Welcome to NewsGuard's Reality Check, a weekly report on how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it. Produced by co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team. We launched Reality Check after seeing how much interest there is in our work beyond the business and tech communities that we serve. We hope you enjoy it! Let us know: realitycheck@newsguardtech.com.
This week:
Taylor Swift injustice: When a superstar becomes a misinformation meme
YouTube: The Russian Disinformation Incubator
Why anti-vaxxers love “The Brady Bunch”
The case of the photoshopped rabbi
And more…
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1. The Taylor Swift “Government Asset” Myth, Dissected
By Macrina Wang
Taylor Swift is hitting the high notes in the chart of misinformation topics, joining the likes of George Soros and Bill Gates as go-to targets for misinformers. That’s why for the second week in a row, Reality Check is leading with a story about false narratives surrounding the pop star.
What happened: In the past two months, more than a dozen right-wing sites, including InfoWars.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 7.5/100) and Before It’s News (Trust Score: 0/100), have advanced bogus claims about the pop star. Among them: that she has been deployed by the CIA, the Pentagon and/or top Democrats to boost support for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid in a psyop — a secret psychological-operation campaign to influence public opinion.
For example: Alternative news site StateOfTheNation.co (Trust Score: 12.5/100) said in a Jan. 30, 2024, article that Swift is part of a CIA-directed “global psyop” to “provide the exceedingly desperate [President Joe] Biden with the single most valuable endorsement of his entire time as a political career criminal.”
Actually: It’s true that Swift has publicly supported some Democratic politicians since 2018, including then-presidential candidate Biden in 2020. But that’s a far cry from Swift being a CIA asset.
A Swiftian timeline: The false claim went mainstream on Jan. 9, when Fox News’ most popular prime-time host, Jesse Watters, suggested on his show that Swift is an “asset” for the Pentagon. The false narrative has a longer origin story than you might expect. Here’s the timeline:
George Soros comes to town: Like many conspiracy theories, this one began with a tenuous George Soros connection. On Aug. 21, 2023, Mike Benz, an official in the Trump administration’s State Department, claimed that the buyout of Swift’s music catalog in 2019 by a company the Soros family has invested in was evidence that Swift was “being wielded as a weapon of US statecraft.”
Fox runs with it: On Jan. 9, 2024, Fox News’ Watters said on his prime-time show that a video showed how the “Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.” Watters played a video of a May 2019 NATO conference during which a speaker, a data engineer named Alicia Marie Bargar, said that influencers can “help encourage or promote behavior change.” Bargar then gave Swift as an example of an influential person who can help “share information or a particular message.”
Actually: The talk does not support anything about a Pentagon strategy to use Swift to spread propaganda. Bargar does not work for NATO or the U.S. government, and in any case she never even made a claim or even hinted anything about Swift being involved in any government-related activity.
The Vivek factor: On Jan. 29, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy added a new twist to the conspiracy theory, suggesting that the upcoming Super Bowl could be rigged for the Kansas City Chiefs to provide a massive platform for Swift to endorse President Biden. Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays for the Chiefs.
Ramaswamy said in an X post, “I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall.”anything about Swift being involved in any government-related activity.
If AI says it, it must be true: Then AI joined the fray. On Jan. 31, InfoWars cited X’s AI chatbot Grok to support the psyop claim. The site posted a screenshot of an X user asking Grok, “Are Democrats and Joe Biden using Taylor Swift as a prop to influence voters and interfere in the Presidential election?”
Grok answered, “Based on the available information, it appears that Democrats and Joe Biden are indeed leveraging Taylor Swift’s influence to sway young voters in the 2024 election.”
Further reading: Taylor Swift also fell victim to explicit AI-made pictures appropriating her image on X. The spread of these images led a bipartisan group of U.S. senators to propose a bill that would criminalize nonconsensual AI deepfake porn.
2. The Disinformation Incubator: Kremlin Uses YouTube to Seed Anti-Ukraine Claims
By Eva Maitland
YouTube has become the Kremlin’s favorite incubator for Russian disinformation, deploying a sophisticated disinformation tactic to influence perception about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Tricks of their trade: Pro-Kremlin propagandists use false claims originating on YouTube as authoritative sources to discredit Ukraine and undermine Western support. They then spread those claims, citing YouTube.
Over six months, we’ve identified seven viral false narratives about Ukraine that originated on anonymous YouTube channels.
These include false narratives about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky purchasing luxury properties — including a villa once owned by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels — and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska's supposed extravagant spending.
A closer look: The videos follow a similar pattern …
A YouTube nobody: Posing as "journalists" or "whistleblowers," the individuals in the YouTube videos falsely claim to possess evidence of corruption in the Ukrainian government.
Fake personas, fake documents: The supposed “journalist” or “whistleblower” appears to be operating under false personas. They also cite fabricated documents.
Viral spread on fringe sites: These YouTube videos gain traction as they are shared by numerous obscure pro-Kremlin websites and other platforms, further spreading the misinformation.
Mainstream Russian media amplification: Shortly after, the claim reaches more prominent, state-sponsored Russian media, which cite the original false claim as the authority, and it is amplified thousands of times across social media platforms.
The key trick: Disinformation researchers at Clemson University describe this technique as “narrative laundering,” whereby a detailed firsthand account is made to go viral in a manner that appears organic, thus giving the claim more credibility.
Think of it as digital astroturfing, creating a facade of grassroots support where none exists.
Big picture: The YouTube disinformers have had an impact on actual policymaking.
In December 2023, three members of the U.S. Congress cited the false claim that Zelensky purchased two yachts worth $75 million as a justification to halt continued aid to Ukraine, the BBC (Trust Score: 95/100) reported.
YouTube, which does not require people to use their real identities when creating accounts or posting videos, did not respond to a NewsGuard request for comment.
Do you work in Trust and Safety for a technology company, in brand safety for advertising or otherwise counter misinformation as part of your job? Find out about NewsGuard’s weekly Risk Briefings, a more detailed briefing for professionals. Click here.
3. Deploying “The Brady Bunch” to Push an Anti-Vax Agenda
By John Gregory
Anti-vaxxers are giving new meaning to the term “rerun.”
What happened: As measles outbreaks have hit the U.S., U.K, and continental Europe, misinformers are citing an unlikely authority to portray the disease as low risk: A 1969 episode of “The Brady Bunch,” a popular sitcom that ran for five years in the U.S. on the ABC network.
On Jan. 14, 2024, singer/songwriter Brad Skistimas, who performs under the name Five Times August, posted a clip of the episode to his 195,000 X followers. In the video, character Marcia Brady says, “If you have to get sick, sure can’t beat the measles,” suggesting the disease is nothing to worry about.
The clip also shows several of the Brady children who are infected with measles happily staying home from school before making a quick recovery. Skistimas captioned the video, “Measles Reminder.”
Watch the clip below:
Who’s behind it: Skistimas took the clip from an Oct. 7, 2023, post from the X account of health supplement store NaturallyFTW.com, which had a more pointed message about the measles for its 155,000 followers: “Big Pharma got this 1969 episode of The Brady Bunch pulled from TV in 2019. Because if we knew Measles has a ~100% survival rate, they couldn't scare us into accepting school Mandates for their toxic injections.”
Actually: CDC.gov (Trust Score: 100/100) says that measles can result in serious complications, including pneumonia, swelling of the brain, and in rare cases, death. Rather than being “toxic injections,” measles vaccines have prevented 56 million deaths worldwide between 2000 and 2021, according to the World Health Organization, and have effectively ended measles transmission in 81 countries as of 2020.
It is also baseless to claim that the episode was “pulled from TV” under pressure from pharmaceutical companies. The Associated Press (Trust Score: 95/100) reported in a 2019 fact-checking article that several “Brady Bunch'' episodes, including the one about measles, are not available due to licensing issues.
4. Misinformers Claim Real Video of Pentagon Chief, Alive, Is AI-Generated
By Virginia Padovese and Giulia Pozzi
Forget creating fake AI photos and videos. Misinformers’ new tactic is claiming real photos and videos are AI fakes.
What happened: For weeks, pro-Kremlin news sites and social media accounts in multiple languages have falsely claimed that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was killed in a Russian missile attack in Ukraine.
Now that Austin is back to work following time in the hospital to treat his prostate cancer, misinformers are claiming that a recent appearance at a virtual meeting was AI-generated and not real.
A closer look: “This is likely AI generated,” stated X user @Scott4670 in a Jan. 24, 2024, post, referring to a clip showing Austin speaking at a Jan. 23 virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. “If they really want to establish that Lloyd Austin is alive, and was not killed in a missile strike in Ukraine, they need to hold a press conference. With live question and answer.”
Another X user, US Civil Defense News,” stated: “Update: US War Chief rumored to be dead appeared today in a ‘live video chat’ during a NATO Ukrainian War Council meeting! Is he alive? Or was he replaced? AI generated bot??” US Civil Defense News’ account has more than 32,000 followers on X.
Actually: Austin is alive. The defense secretary returned to work at the Pentagon on Jan. 29, after working from home during his recovery from surgery and subsequent complications.
Who’s behind it: The false claim that Austin was killed in a Russian missile strike in Ukraine first circulated in early January, following a Jan. 7, 2024, report by Real Raw News (Trust Score: 7.5/100).
Citing a “Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] source,” the Real Raw News report claimed that Austin was killed in Ukraine “when Russian cruise missiles peltered a command bunker.”
5. Iran State Media Claim Trump Said 9/11 Was the “Work of the U.S.”
Donald Trump has advanced lots of conspiracy theories, but this isn’t one of them.
What happened: Iranian state media misrepresented Trump’s remarks during a campaign victory speech in New Hampshire, falsely claiming that he said 9/11 was the “work of the U.S.”
Iranian state-run media outlets circulated a video clip with the title, “Trump: There was no attack on the World Trade Center towers.”
In the text of the article and the subtitles of the video, the Iranian outlets reported that Trump said: “There was no attack on the towers of the World Trade Center,” and “The 9/11 attack was the work of the United States."
Actually: At no point in his Jan. 22, 2024, New Hampshire primary victory speech did Trump deny the attacks on the World Trade Center or claim that 9/11 was an inside job.
The clip, taken from Trump’s speech in New Hampshire, shows that Trump said the U.S. did not suffer any deadly terrorist attacks during his time in office, crediting his travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries.
Watch the full video of Trump speaking by clicking here. Watch the edited version below:
6. NewsGuard Commentary: YouTube Lets the Kremlin Get Away with Seeding Disinformation
By Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard Co-CEO
This week’s item above about how many villas Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky owns — or more accurately, doesn’t own — shows how Russian disinformation operations brilliantly use YouTube to incubate false claims. The Kremlin has a long history of citing false claims previously “seeded” on YouTube channels, such as that Zelensky bought the villa in Germany once owned by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. These false claims pre-positioned on unreliable YouTube are then cited as authoritative sources by Russian disinformation outlets.
Perhaps the most newsworthy example of pre-positioning a false claim came in November 2021, months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when a YouTube channel operated by an American granted asylum in Moscow and known for spreading Russian disinformation claimed that the U.S. operated bioweapons labs in Ukraine. In a report on Russia’s cyber war on Ukraine, Microsoft researchers noted that “the story went largely unnoticed for months,” but on Feb. 24, 2022, “just as Russian tanks crossed the border, this narrative was sent into battle.”
Here’s how, according to the Microsoft report: “A data analytics team at Microsoft has identified 10 Russian-controlled or influenced news sites that simultaneously published reports on February 24 pointing back to ‘last year’s report’ and seeking to give it credence. Russian-sponsored teams then worked to amplify the narrative on social media and internet sites more broadly.”
There is a way to prevent the harm of pre-positioned false claims, whether about Zelensky’s non-existent villas or the U.S.’s non-existent bioweapons labs in Ukraine: YouTube could empower its users by “pre-bunking” its channels known to spread false claims by providing warnings to its users of the kind NewsGuard provides about unreliable news sources. Despite YouTube’s long history of acting as a valued incubator for Russian disinformation, it refuses to give its users access to information about who’s feeding them the “news” on its platform. The Kremlin wins, but news consumers — and the truth — lose.
7. And one last thing: Iran photoshopped a photo of a rabbi
What happened: On Jan. 15, 2023, Iran launched missiles into the Kurdish city of Erbil, striking the home of Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee, killing him, his daughter, and his housekeeper. Iran then claimed it had proof that Dizayee’s home was a base for Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, apparently to justify the deaths caused by its missile strike.
The proof? Iranian media published a photo supposedly showing Dizayee with the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, who Iranian state media said was “a strategic partner of Mossad.”
Actually, a reverse-image search by NewsGuard determined that an actual photo of the rabbi was doctored to include Dizayee. There is no evidence the two men ever met, and there is no evidence that Dizayee had any ties to Mossad.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the real photo (below, left) and fake one:
Tricks of our trade: To find the source of an image, you can use Google's Reverse Image Search. This tool allows you to upload or link to an image to search for it across the web. See below for steps detailing how to use the tool: