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Kanye and Taylor Swift slap-fighting on your Twitter feed

Technically Incorrect: Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift, round 2, boils over on Twitter. West insists he's innocent. It's imperative to take sides.

Chris Matyszczyk
3 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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Not impressed by Kanye's tweet nothings?

Jim Dyson/WireImage

Twitter's not had a wonderful week.

Analysts complain that its user base isn't growing. The stock is diving.

Yet when it comes to big news, real news -- the news you really care about -- Twitter is where it all happens.

Consider, please, Friday. The battle that most people care about isn't Bernie vs Hillary or Ted vs The Donald.

It's Kanye vs. Taylor.

The story so far: Kanye West leaped onto the stage at the 2009 Video Music Awards and insisted that Taylor Swift didn't deserve to win and Beyonce did.

It seemed that they'd made up through the years. Yet on Thursday night, West released his new album "The Life Of Pablo." On it is a song called "Famous" with the lyrics, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous."

Goodness, it's as if Swift wasn't famous before West tried to humble her on stage. After all, she was winning awards.

Where else would West go to explain himself than onto Twitter?

He wrote a series of tweets insisting on Friday that he had never, ever dissed Swift. He said he called Taylor and had a long talk with her about the line in the song "and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings." West also tweeted that he can't take credit for the line. He said Swift had dinner with an unnamed West friend, during which she allegedly said: "I can't be mad at Kanye because he made me famous!"

To underline the alleged veracity of his claim, West added: "#FACTS."

Swift's rep didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. However, she released a statement to The New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica denying that Swift approved the words: "Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, 'I made that bitch famous.'"

And there is Twitter at the center of the action again.

Swift has 71 million followers. West has a mere 18.6 million. Publishing the song to Swift's enormous Twitter audience would surely reap a magical bounty. It would also be a stamp of approval for those very lyrics.

While West continues to insist on Twitter that his art is being demonized, might Twitter not continue to wonder that it's so often at the center of news not just as medium, but as an essential parliament of ideas and socio-political spats?

Somehow, Twitter hasn't yet been able to decide how to fully monetize that importance.

Growing its user base in some forced manner will only dilute its essential brand-image -- a place where messages are given instant importance and fame.

Look how Donald Trump has used Twitter to bolster his image of undiluted invective. Similarly, West used Twitter to insist: "Bitch is an endearing term in hip hop like the word Nigga."

Perhaps that's why Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is now experimenting with offering the option of algorithm-powered tweets, rather than a chronological order.

You just know that the algorithm would power the Kanye-Taylor spat to the top of everyone's timeline.

Just as it's at the top of everyone's mind.

And that's where more people might arrive on Twitter, just to watch the show.