Nicki Minaj raised eyebrows and ire among a portion of her fan base after her latest President Trump-related social media post — a signed Bible from the rapper’s newfound political hero — went wide online, the latest in a trend that may indicate the popular rapper’s voice may be seeing some artificial amplification online.
The multi-platinum-selling rapper-singer-songwriter, who has been vocal but not exactly outspoken on political topics over her nearly 20-year career, is known equally for her freestyling prowess as her penchant for eviscerating her enemies, in her songs, online, wherever. Recently, Minaj has become a political lightning rod amid an unabashed embrace of MAGA and Trump’s politics, which began to appear on her X page late last year. This rightward slide began in earnest after Minaj delivered a speech in November at the United Nations, advocating for an end to religious violence — freedom from persecution being one political matter on which she’d previously sounded off publicly.
This speech caught Trump’s attention, as she favorably name-checked his policies in her speech; given Trump’s history of jumping at opportunities to associate himself with the world of hip-hop, the friendship, or at least a public mutual appreciation, between the two Queens-raised celebrities was born. “I love Nicki Minaj,” Trump told guests at the White House Black History Month reception, calling her beautiful and complimenting her skin and nails. Over the weekend, the gifted Bible Minaj received from Trump brought fresh controversy — partly because Trump was now selling a Bible with his name on it for $1,000, but for Minaj fans, her remark that this was “one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received in my entire life” indicated the red-pilled rapper had gone into MAGAland and was now past the point of no return.
Minaj’s Saturday post had significant reach on the X platform, with 14,000-plus comments and more than 117,000 users liking it as of Monday afternoon. Its reach is relevant this week, and likely under a higher level of scrutiny, after a report analyzing the impact of the rapper’s political tweets is the subject of a just-released study from Cyabra, an Israeli disinformation security company that detects fake social media accounts. Minaj’s rightward political turn has been highly publicized, but its outsized amplification on the X platform seems to have caught the eyes of the Cyabra team.
The percentage of X that is made up of bots, which can range from malicious to useful, has been debated for years. Twitter, which X used to be called, claimed the number was under 5 percent; others have said it’s up to 80 percent of its users.
The study that the firm published this week, titled “Coordinated Inauthentic Amplification of Political Discourse on Nicki Minaj’s X Account,” looked at the rapper’s X account and who amplifies her political posts of late — the persecution of Christians in Nigeria; a new opposition to gender transition; criticism of Democratic politicians, particularly California Gov. Gavin Newsom; and her support for conservative political figures all entered her sphere of commentary.
Focusing on her politically related posts and assessing the authenticity of the accounts interacting with them, Cyabra’s study identifies a “materially elevated level of inauthentic activity” in her X account’s comments. Cyabras’s study shows that 33 percent of accounts that engaged with Minaj’s political posts were deemed fake, which is substantially higher than the baseline levels typically seen on social posts.
In its analysis of the campaign to amplify Minaj’s posts and her newfound far-right point of view, the firm indicated that the Minaj X campaign’s primary objective had less to do with her embrace of MAGA and more with boosting the rapper’s reputation.
“[The campaign was] focusing on reinforcing visible support for Nicki Minaj — particularly in posts that attracted criticism — in order to manufacture the appearance of broad public endorsement and a supportive fan base,” the report states.
Comments generated by fake profiles in support of Minaj were “predominantly brief, repetitive and low in semantic complexity.” Praising keywords and Minaj-positive hashtags were being used, rather than “original or substantive engagement,” the report found.
These sham X profiles operated in a coordinated manner, according to Cyabra, with synchronized posting, repeated keywords and messaging that was telling in how consistent it was across multiple X comment sections. The campaign generated significant impact by embedding fake accounts into real user conversations, resulting in 59,001 engagements and substantially increasing the visibility and reach of the amplified content.
As far as Cyabra is concerned, the Minaj boost campaign was a real success story.
“Overall, the findings show that the campaign was effective, using coordinated inauthentic engagement to materially influence perceived support and narrative visibility,” the firm concludes in its report.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Minaj and Cyabra for comment but did not immediately hear back on Monday.