Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift girlfriend shares details from his surprise proposal: Meant to Be …

A post on X, formerly Twitter by account @BallsackSports, posted on February 11, 2024, viewed 79,900 times, said: “Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are now engaged. She said yes.”

An image below the post showed Swift and Kelce kissing, with the quote: “‘I’ve got my ring, and now here I’ve got yours’ Travis Kelce on his proposal to Taylor Swift.”The post appears to be little more than engagement farming, referring to online content posted purely to engage readers no matter the quality or accuracy.

The name of the account that posted it, Ballsack Sports, is perhaps something of a giveaway. The account describes itself as “Parody/Satire,” although what a claim like “Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are now engaged” is parodying or satirizing is unclear.

The account has no website, only reporting via social media and in a similar format to the Kelce and Swift post. It posted similarly inaccurate claims on its Instagram recently, including that NBA superstar LeBron James’ name was on the list of visitors to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s island.

This is not the only instance Newsweek has investigated recently in which inaccurate or defamatory claims have been weakly defended as being parody or satire. In January, the Dunning Kruger Times, another “satire” site, claimed with no clear sign of humor that actor Tom Hanks had an Academy Award stripped from him over reputational concerns.

There is also the fact that no other media outlet has reported what would arguably be the biggest story in global celebrity news should it happen.

In any case, the claim is not based on evidence.

Expert analysis suggests that Swift’s association with the Chiefs has earned the team around $331.5 million.

“If you took a population base of the seven billion people in the world, many could name an athlete from global sports such as Formula 1 or English Premier League,” Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group—which conducted research into the economic impact of Swift and Kelce’s relationship and came up with the figure—told Newsweek.

“And that’s what this whole viral episode is all about. It has really catapulted Travis and made him a known name in other parts of the world.”