The Hailey Bieber-Selena Gomez Feud: How Narrative Warfare Impacts Celebrity Reputation & Brands

The digital battlefield is evolving rapidly: celebrities can embody global brands that are quickly elevated or damaged based on online sentiment. One recent example is the enduring online feud between pop superstar Selena Gomez and model-turned-entrepreneur Hailey Bieber.

From social media hate campaigns to inflammatory content linking tattoos and TikToks, the Gomez-Bieber saga is a case study of the dynamics of online narrative warfare. With both women tied to billion-dollar beauty empires—Gomez with Rare Beauty and Bieber with Rhode—the consequences of these narrative cascades extend far beyond personal reputations. They directly impact brand perception and business growth.

At Blackbird.AI, we’ve spent years studying how online narratives form, how they spread, and—most importantly—how they can be countered. Our Constellation Narrative Intelligence Platform and Compass by Blackbird.AI tools help executives, celebrities, and public figures detect, understand, and mitigate reputational, operational, and physical risks in near real-time. For this research, Blackbird.AI’s RAV3N Narrative Intelligence and Research Team analyzed some of the most prominent narratives targeting both Gomez and Bieber in over 100,000 online conversations on digital platforms over three weeks, focusing on misleading claims, coordination, and inauthentic activity. 

LEARN: What Is Narrative Intelligence?

Narratives as Weapons: How Online Feuds Take Shape

The Gomez-Bieber feud is fueled by a matrix of long-standing evolving online narratives, each tied to emotionally charged rhetoric such as jealousy, racism, and cultural identity. Pro-Hailey narratives accuse Selena and her fanbase of inciting hate, manipulating public perception, and attempting to derail Hailey’s success. In contrast, pro-Selena narratives allege that Hailey is a copycat obsessed with undermining her rival’s personal and professional identity.

These messages spread across traditional social media platforms, amplified by influencers and fan armies. While anti-Selena chatter featured high levels of inauthentic amplification and micro-influencer involvement, rhetoric negatively portraying Hailey Bieber included moderate levels of anomalous activity, signaling that this narrative circulated as part of a campaign. 

This claim was context-checked by Compass by Blackbird.AI.

Using narrative detection and threat intelligence, Blackbird’s platform identifies emerging sentiment shifts and misleading content before they become PR crises. This level of proactive monitoring is crucial for individuals whose names are synonymous with valuable consumer brands.

This Blackbird.AI Constellation network graph visualizes anti-Selena Gomez chatter in yellow and anti-Hailey Bieber chatter in blue, illustrating two distinct echo chambers. As shown by the overlapping colors, several influencers contributed to spreading negative messages about one of the two celebrities while rejecting harmful discourse targeting the other.

Today’s celebrities are much like CEOs of their brand empires. Any reputational damage they incur ripples directly into business performance.

In Hailey Bieber’s case, backlash from Gomez fans has led to several review bombings of Rhode Beauty, a spike in anti-Hailey sentiment across social platforms, and even calls for boycotts. Conversely, when the feud narrative coincided with Selena Gomez’s new music release, Rare Beauty saw a measurable uptick in engagement across platforms—showing that controversy can also become a catalyst for attention.

This claim was context-checked by Compass by Blackbird.AI.

Blackbird can surface correlations between narrative attacks and shifts in brand perception, allowing stakeholders to respond with evidence-based counter-narratives, targeted community engagement, and real-time crisis mitigation.

This activity graph shows spikes in engagement related to the Hailey Bieber-Selena Gomez feud, with a clear spike on March 21 – the day Gomez’s album was released. 

The Power of Timing: When Controversy Meets Campaign Strategy

One of the most compelling aspects of this feud is its uncanny alignment with product launches and significant media moments. Selena Gomez’s recent album drop occurred at the height of online discourse, which accused Hailey Bieber of obsession and jealousy, fueling visibility for both celebrities. Whether intentional or coincidental, the timing of personal controversies can be weaponized to amplify product awareness.

Blackbird’s AI detects anomalous narrative surges and maps their timing against external events like launches or album drops. This holistic view empowers public figures and brand teams to distinguish between opportunity and risk, and to respond accordingly. Selena vs. Hailey saga is more than a pop culture drama. It is a reflection of the digital age, where personal identity, fan discourse, and brand performance are inextricably linked.

 

The Blackbird.AI Constellation network graph shows networked connections between entities circulating adverse messaging regarding the two celebrities. Red nodes indicate bot-like activity, mainly localized within influencers’ audiences, which spreads this narrative, suggesting that these high-engagement actors benefited from inauthentic amplification. 

The Way Forward

Celebrity feuds are no longer confined to gossip columns—they are now complex online narrative battles with real-world consequences for physical security, personal brands, and billion-dollar enterprises. For entrepreneurs in the spotlight, like Hailey Bieber with Rhode or Selena Gomez with Rare Beauty, reputational defense has become a business-critical function.

As AI-generated content and coordinated fan-driven campaigns evolve, so too must the protection strategies. Narrative Intelligence is essential. Blackbird.AI is at the forefront of executive protection in the narrative age, and our solutions offer clarity in chaos, speed in crisis, and security in the face of digital volatility.

Here’s how Blackbird.AI empowers high-profile figures to stay ahead of narrative attacks and protect both their identity and business interests:

• Deploy narrative intelligence for early detection: The speed at which narratives—whether genuine, inauthentic or AI-manipulated—spread online makes monitoring a necessity. Blackbird’s Constellation Platform detects emerging narratives across online ecosystems before they go viral.
• Map narrative impact to brand performance: Blackbird.AI does not just detect narratives—it shows how they affect your business. By linking online narratives to specific outcomes, celebrities can quantify the real-world impact of reputational and operational threats on their brand’s performance.
• Uncover coordinated inauthentic behavior: Behind many narrative attacks are networks of inauthentic accounts—bots, sockpuppets, and coordinated fan brigades. These actors amplify controversial and inflammatory narratives, manufacture virality, and distort public perception.
• Align timing with opportunity: Blackbird can help high-profile figures and brand teams understand when a narrative is spiking organically. In Selena Gomez’s case, the simultaneous release of an album and narrative spike around Hailey Bieber may have contributed to heightened visibility. Blackbird identifies these overlaps and assesses whether engagement is trending positive, neutral, or hostile—empowering teams to lean in or pull back accordingly.

Protect What Matters Most

Today’s celebrity is a walking brand, and that brand is vulnerable to digital manipulation as well as narrative distortion and weaponization. Whether high-profile individuals are building a beauty empire, launching a music career, or managing a billion-dollar fashion line—narrative threats are not just reputational; they are existential and can become physical. Blackbird.AI exists to give high-profile individuals and brand stewards the tools they need to navigate this new terrain with clarity, speed, and confidence.

• To receive a complimentary copy of The Forrester External Threat Intelligence Landscape 2025 Report, visit here.
• To learn more about how Blackbird.AI can help you in these situations, book a demo.