A vague study on Nazi bots created chaos in the Taylor Swift fan universe

On December 9th, Rolling Stone published a story that some saw as a bombshell: a network of coordinated, "inauthentic" social media accounts had a hand in the weekslong discourse that trailed the release of Taylor Swift's recent album, The Life of a Showgirl.

It was a big deal for those in the Swiftie/anti-Swiftie universe. Immediately following the record's release in October, discussion of Showgirl was fan- and critic-driven - passionate but fairly calm. Listeners debated the meaning of songs...