Taylor Swift called fires 'God's punishment' for Israel aid? No, that's AI | Fact check
The claim: Video shows Taylor Swift calling Los Angeles wildfires ‘God’s punishment’ for US aid to Israel
A Jan. 11 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a video appearing to show musician Taylor Swift linking the deadly Southern California wildfires to U.S. aid for Israel.
“Israel burns Gaza for a year and a half with missiles funded by American taxpayers only for God’s punishment to strike the U.S.," says Swift. "In just two days, divine retribution struck the United States as a natural disaster consumed an area larger than Gaza itself."
Text in Arabic superimposed on the video reads, “America’s fires are caused by what we did.”
The Instagram post received more than 6,000 likes in five days. Similar versions also circulated widely on X.
Fact check roundup: Which claims about LA fires are true or false?
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Our rating: Manipulated media
A clip of Swift from 2021 was doctored to change what she says, according to two artificial intelligence experts.
‘A pretty clear fake,' expert says
The minute-long video, shared four days before a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas was reached, purports to show Swift decrying Israel's “relentless bombing” in Gaza that “left its infrastructure in ruins” and appears to show Swift calling the California wildfires “divine retribution” for those military actions. The video then cuts to what appears to be footage of the fires, which have killed at least 25 people in the greater Los Angeles area, forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate and destroyed more than 12,000 businesses, houses and other structures.
But the clip isn’t real. It was taken from years-old footage of a Swift appearance on a late-night talk show and edited – almost certainly with AI – to change her message, multiple experts told Paste BN.
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“Overall, this is a pretty clear fake,” said James O'Brien, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
The clip loops footage from Swift’s Nov. 12, 2021, appearance on The Tonight Show. While her dress and the background match those in the Instagram video, she makes no mention of Gaza in the Tonight Show appearance, which instead shows her describing the origin of one of her songs.
Siwei Lyu, a digital media forensics expert at the University at Buffalo, described it as a “lip-synced deepfake.” In an email to Paste BN, he said his detection tools indicate a high likelihood that AI was used to create the clip’s audio and a near certainty that it was used to doctor the video. He said Swift’s teeth appear inconsistent, alternating between blurry and clear, and pointed out that after roughly 30 seconds, the video and audio are out of sync.
Additionally, her body language does not match her speech, O’Brien said, characterizing the audio as generative AI that “ends up sounding more like Siri” – the voice assistant on Apple devices. For example, at one point the voice purportedly belonging to Swift shifts into a British accent.
While the video shared to Instagram bears the logo of a purported news outlet that appears to be based in India, there is no record of the organization sharing the clip. Paste BN reached out to the group but did not immediately receive a response.
Paste BN previously debunked false claims that GoPro firefighter footage shows the January 2025 fires, that President Joe Biden’s administration blocked firefighting aircraft during his Los Angeles visit and that the city’s police department linked the fires to President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters.
Paste BN reached out to the Instagram user who shared the clip but did not immediately receive a response. The X user who shared it could not be reached.
Our fact-check sources
- James O’Brien, Jan. 15, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Siwei Lyu, Jan. 14, Email exchange with Paste BN
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Nov. 12, 2021, Taylor Swift’s 10-Minute Version of All Too Well Almost Wasn’t Recorded (Extended) | Tonight Show
- The Daily Numainda, accessed Jan. 15, Facebook page
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