Is this police officer a Taylor Swift fan? Or is he trying to stop bystanders from filming him?
Historically, pop music has served as a weapon for those fighting against “the man.” But authorities may have found a way to wield it for their own nefarious purposes.
Yesterday, during a filmed confrontation with an activist at the Alameda County courthouse, an Oakland police officer surprised onlookers when he whipped out his phone and played “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. The activist asked him, “Are we having a dance party now?” and after a bit of back and forth, the officer replied: “You can record all you want, but I just know it can’t be posted on YouTube.”
Whether or not the cop is a Swiftie is up for debate—but more likely, he was admitting to what many have suspected: police officers are using pop music as a defensive tactic against bystander videos going viral on social media.
How would a Taylor Swift song do this? Instagram and YouTube are notorious for using artificial intelligence software to detect and remove copyrighted music from their platforms. Defacto, if someone — say, an Oakland police officer — didn’t like the way a filmed interaction was going, they could theoretically play a pop banger and trigger those systems to stop said video from going viral.
This isn’t the first time that a police officer has used pop music in an attempt to thwart a citizen journalist.
Back in February, Sublime singer Bradley Nowell surely rolled in his grave at the news that a Beverly Hills cop played “Santeria” to halt a recorded confrontation with an activist. But the Oakland incident may be the first evidence we have to substantiate the copyright-trigger theory.
It’s worth noting that the tactic may not be working. The video is still up on YouTube and Twitter as of this posting.