Breaking news: Taylor Swift has vanished from social media.
Well, sort of.
On Friday, we noticed that every single image from the 27-year-old pop star’s Instagram account had been wiped. The profile picture and bio sections turned blank, and the number of accounts she follows turned to 0. Weird!
#Swifties declared a pop emergency and took to every single social media platform imaginable to question the validity of these actions. Was she hacked? Some loyal fans are convinced. “It’s so terrible to see that someone hacked Taylor’s IG account and deleted her posts and made her follow nobody. How can someone do this to such a princess? What do you want haters?” one fan account proclaimed.
Others simply freaked out over the news.
“WTF!!!! I’m so scared. Why did she do this? Her Instagram was so beautiful!! Someone tell me something!! P.S. Whatever it may be, it’s her decision and we must respect it,” another fan account wrote.
On Twitter, fans immediately began wondering whether this is the sign of a major comeback. Perhaps the announcement of a sixth studio album? Fans are calling it #TS6. And, interestingly, this social media hiatus comes on the two-year anniversary of the announcement of 1989, her first pop album.
So what’s going down? While Swift has yet to post anything new, we also noticed she removed her profile picture on Twitter. Her official website, taylorswift.com, is now completely blank, with not a single image or link on it.
We’re speculating this could be the way in which she announces a major comeback. After all, why totally wipe previous content unless you’re breaking something huge? Also, something tells us Taylor Swift has her Internet security on lock, so it’s very unlikely that this is a takeover.
For those of you worried about never seeing her precious ‘grams again, don’t fret just yet. Remember, Instagram recently introduced a feature that allows you to archive images and bring them back at your leisure. This is perhaps what she did.
Also, remember when Justin Bieber disappeared from the app last August? While he appeared to have deleted-slash-deactivated his account, he later returned this past February with a string of new photos—and his old posts were still there.
Of course, Bieber isn’t the only one to suddenly remove himself from social media. Kanye West said goodbye to Twitter and Instagram in February and, most recently, Solange Knowles said adieu to Twitter for political reasons.
While we wait to see what’s actually going on with Swift’s account, we’ll be busy monitoring the story on Twitter, where her fans are still losing it. The GIFs are too good to ignore.
Bring it, Taylor.