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after american singer taylor swift, affectionately known as "taylor" by her chinese fans, officially announced her support for us vice president and democratic party kamala harris's presidential campaign, hundreds of thousands of users flocked to the government voting website, highlighting the huge influence of the superstar.

according to media reports, a spokesperson for the u.s. general services administration (gsa) said that a post swift posted on instagram in support of harris prompted more than 330,000 visitors to the vote.gov website.

vote.gov is the federal government's voting registration website, operated by the general services administration. it directs voters to their states and territories to register to vote and provides answers to frequently asked questions.

swift announced her support for harris minutes after her first debate with former president donald trump ended on tuesday night, saying she was voting for harris "because she fights for rights and causes that i believe require warriors to defend" and believes the country should "lead with calm, not chaos."

swift, a 14-time grammy award winner, has 283 million instagram followers.

in her instagram post, swift directed her fans to the website vote.gov and encouraged them to do their own research and register to vote early.

swift's custom url to vote.gov drove huge traffic to the site, with 337,826 visitors visiting the vote.gov website as of 2 p.m. local time on wednesday.

this isn't the first time swift has driven a surge in traffic to vote.gov. last year, swift posted a similar link to vote.gov to incentivize her fans to register to vote. within an hour of swift's 2023 post, the site reportedly saw a 1,226% increase in traffic.

angering trump

swift's endorsement of harris angered trump and his campaign.

trump said in an interview with the media on wednesday morning that swift "may pay a price for this in the marketplace."

trump's running mate, ohio sen. j.d. vance, downplayed the impact of swift's support for harris.

"we appreciate taylor swift's music, but i don't think most americans, whether they like her music or not, whether they are her fans or not, will be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who i think is fundamentally out of touch with the interests and issues of most americans," vance said in an interview with the media on wednesday.

in august this year, when ai-generated fake photos of taylor swift supporting trump were circulated on social media, trump posted on his "truth social": "i accept it."

on tuesday, swift refuted the fake photos circulating online and said that her support for harris was partly a response to those ai-generated images. "as a voter, i need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election," she said.

swift supported the democratic party in the 2018 midterm elections and endorsed the biden-harris combination in 2020. she has said she regretted not publicly expressing her support during the 2016 presidential campaign, when trump won the white house.

source: cailianshe