Taylor Swift's Voting Message Sparks Outrage

Taylor Swift urged her American followers to vote in the 2023 elections on her Instagram Stories Tuesday—but many online have slammed the message as "performative."

On Tuesday, voters in several states went to the polls to decide key races and issues.

The "Blank Space" singer wrote: "Voters gonna vote! It's Election Day! If you are registered to vote in Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Virginia, it's time to use your voice."

She finished by directing her followers to a website where they can find out what's on their ballot before arriving at the polls.

Newsweek reached out to a Swift representative for comment via email Wednesday.

The post hasn't gone down well with some of her fans and many took to X, formerly Twitter, to express their disappointment with the singer. One main criticism was the fact that she spoke out about the election but has remained silent when it comes to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

On October 7, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, in which at least 1,400 people were killed. Israel then launching heavy airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. As of November 7, over 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to The Associated Press, citing the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

"Why is Taylor Swift posting about elections without addressing a genocide happening that will directly impact how many people vote? So it's all just performative huh?" one person wrote.

"I'm tired of excusing celebrities—if Taylor Swift can post a story specifically asking people to vote, she can damn well tweet about Palestine," said another.

Swift was tagged in a post on Sunday from the State of Israel's official X account, which requested her assistance in locating a teenage soldier, who has been missing since October 7.

"Roni (19) Eshel who is a huge Swiftie has been missing since the October 7th Massacre," the account, run by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, posted. "It would mean the world to Roni's family if Taylor would use her platform to call for Roni's return."

Swift has not used her X account to address the Israeli conflict, which has seen celebrities attract criticism and praise as they weigh in on the situation. Swift has faced pressure to speak out in support of both sides of the conflict, with some of her fans rallying around a #SwiftiesForPalestine hashtag on X.

Others online thought Swift's message on November 7 was too tepid.

"A vague 'go vote' story in 1989tv font that will disappear in 24 hours isn't activism. [G]row a backbone..." one person wrote.

Another added: "Taylor Swift's 'activism' is so funny to me like telling people to register to vote is less than the bare minimum WHY did she release a whole documentary based around becoming politically active just to do nothing other than sign a single petition five years ago."

On September 19, National Voter Registration Day, the singer took to Instagram to share a message urging her fans to register on the nonpartisan, nonprofit Vote.org. According to the organization, Swift's post was followed by a surge of more than 35,000 registrations—an almost 25 percent increase over the same day last year.

Swift has expressed the desire to become more politically involved over the years. In 2018, she took to Instagram to endorse Phil Bredesen, the Democratic candidate for Senate in her home state of Tennessee. This was the first time the pop superstar revealed her political beliefs publicly.

"In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," she wrote at the time.

Not all of her fans were critical of the post though, with many thanking her for speaking out.

After it was announced Ohio had voted to establish the right to an abortion in the state's constitution, one Swift fan posted on X: "This is why it's important TO VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION and why it WAS good for Taylor Swift to remind people to vote. This is not a zero-sum game. We need to be doing more than one thing at a time. There is such a thing as an unimportant or inconsequential election."

Another person also wrote: "People forget that Taylor Swift started telling people to vote was in like 2007 when she endorsed Barack Obama—y'all are having a very weird reaction to her simply telling people to vote when it's election day in America, like what else you expect her to do as an American?"

Swift told Rolling Stone in 2009 that she had voted for Obama.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.