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By Dani Di Placido<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first few days of January were so dull and uneventful that the internet focused its ire on a random man on Twitter who wouldn\u2019t open a can of beans for his daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it didn’t take long for the lunacy of 2020 to spill out into 2021, as an extremely bizarre rumor regarding Kim Kardashian and Kanye West\u2019s alleged incoming divorce began to spread across social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly, Twitter users began to claim that Kanye West had been caught having an affair with YouTuber\/beauty guru Jeffree Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the chaotic events of January 6 obviously overshadowed celebrity gossip, the wild rumor continued to gain steam, slowly simmering in the background, with fans of both celebrities assembling \u201cevidence,\u201d such as a Jeffree Star selfie, captioned, \u201cI\u2019m ready for Sunday Service,\u201d along with one of Star\u2019s songs from 2009 which mentions West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bizarre allegation sounds too silly to entertain for a moment, yet, somehow, managed to gain enough attention for Jeffree Star himself to comment\u2014the beauty guru released a video on YouTube titled \u201cAddressing The Kanye Situation\u201d in which he debunks the claim, stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is so weird \u2026 this is so stupid. Let me just say this one time \u2026 I like very tall men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But where on earth did the rumor come from, and how did it manage to sustain itself without substantial evidence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, the story originated on TikTok, home to a wide range of misinformation and conspiracy theories. The rumor was sparked by influencer Ava Louise, the TikTok personality behind last year\u2019s satirical \u201cCoronavirus Challenge,” in which she filmed herself licking an airplane toilet seat. So, clearly a very serious and reliable source of information!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Louise posted a TikTok making the scandalous claim, stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKanye\u2019s been hooking up with a very famous beauty guru, male beauty guru, a lot of people in the scene have known for a while. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise wrote in the caption:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201ci can\u2019t say WHO cuz he\u2019ll sue me hint hint but it\u2019s part of the reason Kanye\u2019s so religious now it\u2019s his self hatred \u2026. my source is legit I promiss [sic]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that was all it took\u2014the internet ran with the rumor from there, and decided that the culprit was surely Jeffree Star. Fans pointed out that both West and Star live in Wyoming, and that circumstantial \u201cevidence,\u201d along with Star\u2019s selfie and song lyric, was enough to spread the story. After all, Louise\u2019s source was \u201clegit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sure the free publicity was incredibly beneficial to Jeffree Star, but not so much for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian; there\u2019s a limit to the appeal of internet attention. A source close to the Kardashian family told E! News that \u201cthere is absolutely no truth to Jeffree and Kanye rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bizarre story is an interesting example of how a wild, completely unsubstantiated claim on TikTok can explode into the mainstream, with fans cherry-picking evidence to suit their preferred narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One can also conclude that people have been indoors for far too long\u2014the internet is becoming weirder by the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally published at Forbes<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Dani Di Placido The first few days of January were so dull and uneventful that the internet focused its ire on a random man on Twitter who wouldn\u2019t open a can of beans for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[342,881],"class_list":["post-3881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-art-culture","tag-kanye-west","tag-kim-kardashian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n