At the end of the day, it's a numbers game.
As Nov. 13, Taylor Swift has 46.7 million Twitter followers. That places her among the most-followed individuals of all time, right behind President Barack Obama. Not a bad place to be in the Twittersphere. In contrast, Diplo – aka Thomas Wesley Pentz, a music producer and DJ – has a mere 1.3 million followers. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the 45.4 million difference. Don't get us wrong: 1.3 million is no small sum. By almost any account, it's an impressive feat to garner that many followers. But it's not 46.7 million. And it's not right behind President Obama. And it never will be.
Here's the problem: Diplo decided to start some Twitter beef with T-Swift. But when it comes to Twitter, it's a numbers game. And Diplo was already losing at that. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that the beef-picking was a certifiably bad idea.
A bad idea takes shape on Nov. 12
Remember remember the twelfth of November. Because that was the night that Diplo decided to post the following Tweet: "Someone should make a kickstarter to get taylor swift a booty."
Many things disappear into the Twittersphere, but when it came to this choice tweet, Taylor's fans weren't able to just shake it off. And of all the fans out there, one fan's voice resounded particularly loudly: None other than Lorde. The New Zealand songstress took to Twitter – and her own fan base of biblical proportions – to unleash a pointed diss at the Dip. She appears to have deleted her comment from Twitter, but fortunately it exists forever thanks to Gawker.
But there is more to the story
As it turns out, it wasn't really the case that Diplo was a one-man army taking on 47 million superfans. By many credible accounts – and by that we mean US Weekly – he is apparently dating none other than Katy Perry, the most-followed person on the planet. As of Nov. 13, Perry had 59.9 million followers. By the time you read this it'll probably be 60. She is a powerhouse. Her fame is limitless, and as far as her fan base, she's arguably peerless.
So when Diplo followed up his initial tweet with musings like "are taylor swift fans called the swift boat veterans?" as well as linking to an actual campaign to enhance Swift's posterior, he likely did it knowing he had the safety blanket of a bunch of Katy Perry fans to lie on. Because apparently, as ABC is reporting, Swift and Perry have beef. The beef reportedly stems from Perry trying to sabotage a Swift performance, and Swift deciding to write a song about that (surprise surprise). No news on how this latest event will impact it.
At the end of the day, though, Diplo's reputation is unlikely to suffer from his little stunt. After all, you don't get to 1.3 million friends without making 46.7 million enemies.
