ACLU steps over Swift lawsuit threat
Blogger wrote about growing alt-right fan base
There’s some Bad Blood brewing between The American Civil Liberties Union, Taylor Swift and Meghan Herning, an editor for PopFront who recently wrote an article discussing a growing alt- right fan base Swift has allegedly enabled.
The ACLU has stepped in to defend Herning and her first amendment freedom of speech rights after Swift’s legal team wrote a letter to Herning Oct. 25 threatening litigation action over her article, “Swiftly to the altright: Taylor subtly gets the lower case kkk in formation.” They also demanded it be retracted.
The article criticizes Swift for her lack of outspokenness on the subject of racism. Herning also claimed that there are subtle nods toward white supremacy in Swift’s lyrics.
“Taylor’s lyrics in Look What You Made Me Do seem to play to the same subtle, quiet white support of a racial hierarchy,” wrote Herning. “Many on the alt- right see the song as part of a “re- awakening,” in line with Trump’s rise.”
Herning alludes to the fact that on the day Look What You Made Me Do was released, alt- right publication Breitbart tweeted out the lyrics from the song, “I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time.” In the eyes of the alt-right, the lyrics enforced the fact that racism and white supremacy have risen from the dead alongside Donald Trump’s presidency.
Swift’s legal team states that the article “is replete with demonstrable and offensive falsehoods which bear no relation to reality or the truth about Ms. Swift.”
The ACLU, on the other hand, has stated that Herni ng and PopFront were merely stating opinions, not asserting facts, and that they have the right to do so.
He rn in gal so has released a statement, in which she says ,“These scare tactics may have worked for Taylor in the past, but I am not backing down.”
The ACLU has reached out to Swift and her attorney for a comment. After a year where she feuded constantly with Kanye and Kim Kardashian, Swift looks like she might once again have to Shake It Off.