Posts about Taylor Swift, Kid Rock hurricane aid stem from satire

"Kid Rock heads to North Carolina with millions in supplies -- Taylor Swift nowhere to be found," says an October 8, 2024 Threads post.

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Screenshot of a Threads post taken October 14, 2024

The claim circulated elsewhere on Threads and X.

Hurricane Helene, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005's Hurricane Katrina, devastated parts of the US southeast. One of the states hard-hit by the storm was flood-stricken North Carolina. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast, triggering a spate of tornadoes and heavy rain.

The storms also triggered disinformation, including unfounded weather modification theories, deceptive claims about available government aid and multiple examples of images shared out of context.

Swift is also a regular target of disinformation and as with many of the false claims AFP has debunked about the pop star, the latest stems from satire.

Misinformation targeting Swift has surged since she endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Kid Rock meanwhile is a Donald Trump supporter who performed at the Republican National Convention.

Parody website

A keyword search uncovered the claim about hurricane relief originated from a satirical article on the Dunning-Kruger Times website, a subsidiary of the parody website network America's Last Line of Defense. "Everything on this website is fiction," the satire site says on its "About Us" page (archived here).

Christopher Blair, founder of America's Last Line of Defense, told AFP many share his posts because they "fit with their confirmation-biased narrative of the world." AFP has reported on dozens of false claims that trace back to Blair's sites.

Although some social media posts are clearly labeled as satire, others are not -- an example of what the News Literacy Project calls "stolen satire," or "a satirical story that is removed from its original context and presented online without an immediately apparent disclaimer."

Swift donated $5 million toward helping communities impacted by the storms, reported multiple news outlets.

The non-profit organization Feeding America thanked Swift for her donation in an October 9 X post (archived here).

It includes a statement from the organization's CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot: "We're incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift for her generous $5 million donation to Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief efforts."

AFP found no evidence that Kid Rock donated "millions in supplies," to hurricane victims. However, he did share a GoFundMe started by Republican nominee Trump in an October 1 X post (archived here). A $20,000 contribution to the fund is attributed to Kid Rock in the public donors list, while The Hill reported the star had contributed $50,000 (archived here).

AFP contacted Rock's Charity Foundation for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.

Read more of AFP's reporting on hurricane misinformation here.