The Hailey Bieber Smear Campaign

Written By ExposingSMG

After multiple viral hate trains targeted Hailey Bieber, concerns began to grow when TikTok was reportedly paying creators to criticize her around the time of Selena Gomez’s new album release. At the same time, a viral documentary filled with misinformation was gaining traction and being accepted as fact. These developments sparked an important question: Is this a coordinated smear campaign?

The Takedown of Hailey Bieber

It all started again when a video from months ago went viral on TikTok, titled the " 7-part series exposing Hailey Bieber as a stalker.”

The video by the channel, Internet Oddities, has recently been taken down as of April 2025, after our Rebuttal Video went up.

Update—The original video is back up. It seems like this is an ongoing investigation, but nonetheless, there are talks about the video being removed because it violated rules regarding harmful misinformation.

Video by Internet Oddities that has been deleted but is now reinstated.

“That video contained harmful lies and misinformation that seemed as if it was done deliberately, perhaps a smear campaign and your video helped prove that.” — my source

Shortly afterward, Netflix star, Francesca Farago confirmed the rumors that an orchestrated smear campaign was going on.

Steve Granitz/Getty Images

She said, “There’s this trend going on right now, being like, ‘When my boyfriend thinks we met organically’, and then the girl slides to a photo of Hailey, like laughing, ‘Ha Ha’. And it’s supposed to be like you’re the stalker. Everyone is calling themselves ‘Hailey’ because they stalked their men, and that’s how they got him. It’s a trend right now.”

She continued saying, “Sometimes, me and Jesse get paid to do trends on TikTok […] Creators are being paid to do that trend like making fun of Hailey. I think that’s so mean. I just think that if it’s a trend taking off on its own, whatever, but the fact they’re paying creators to do the trend— It is making fun of her, and it’s not, because the girls are also making fun of themselves in a way.”

Francesca even exposes that she was offered money to participate in the trend saying, “I was offered a decent amount of money to do it, but I was like, ‘No!’. Even if it’s funny or lighthearted, but it’s lowkey not. Maybe I’m just being dramatic. I feel like, because she’s a new mom, it’s so mean to have this much hate on her.”

Here is a video of Francesa saying this:

Francesca shared that she was afraid to speak out, fearing she might be the next target of those responsible.

She also revealed that she let Hailey know who was trying to pay her to participate in a hate-fest against her:

More of what she said:

A lot of people pointed the finger at Selena Gomez, who originally provoked all of this 2 years ago when she was commenting under and interacting with a bunch of anti-Hailey TikTok videos that only fed the hate train.

The video on YouTube suspiciously went viral on TikTok when Selena started promoting her new album, I Said I Love You First with her fiancé, Benny Blanco.

What Francesca is saying is true because, as someone who is a TikTok creator, I have access to “bonus” videos. If I complete certain tasks, I can get a bonus if I get a video viral using a certain sound.

Here’s an example:

What Francesa is referring to is more of the reference posts, as you can see here:

TikTok tells you what to post because the algorithm is more likely to push it, since this is a paid campaign and there’s money being funneled through it.

A lot of the anti-Hailey-this-is-my-stalker videos that went viral were using Selena’s song in a way to promote Selena while trashing the woman who they felt was responsible for the way Selena’s life turned out.

If you guys have more reference screenshots, please comment them down below and I’ll insert them into the post.

A smear campaign is defined as an intentional, premeditated effort to undermine an individual's or group's reputation, credibility, and character.

It’s a plan to discredit a public figure by making false or dubious accusations.

Focus on the words: intentional, discredit, and false.

If you intend to get the truth out there, then that’s not a smear campaign.

However, when you go out of your way to fabricate stories, spread misinformation, create fake screenshots, and deliberately cause harm, that constitutes a smear campaign—and based on the evidence, that’s exactly what some Selena Gomez fans have been guilty of in the court of Scandalous Media Law™️.

That is a screen recording of Selena Gomez fans admitting to faking Justin Bieber's like on a post of Selena Gomez.

The group chat is titled “Hailey’s Headache,” creative… I’ll give them that, and there is one user who says, “This is going to drive Hailey mad.”

“Just imagine Hailey going to bed tonight thinking she’s all safe and then she wakes up to a million people talking about this. It’s gonna be a whole meltdown. Can’t wait for the tears.”

And apparently these fans are connected to Courtney Presto, the creator who lied about Hailey liking her post.

Intentionally planning on inciting hate on false pretenses is grounds for suing and defamation, which is what Hailey was inquiring about.

This is more about creators like me because as we saw, Cardi B was able to successfully sue a blogger for defamation.

To prove defamation, you have to prove that the person was spreading false claims and intended to do so maliciously.

Now ask yourself how Scandalous Media has been standing for 12 years and counting :)

I’m going to post a separate inside tea spill about Selena and Hailey so stay tuned.

How it started in 2023

Hailey has always gotten hate because people hold her responsible for breaking up Justin and Selena’s toxic relationship that…

  1. wasn’t even a thing when they happened and

  2. they couldn’t stay together even if you conjoined them at the sides and built a bridge in between them

But here’s where the culprit comes in… Selena Gomez.

While everyone has done shady and embarrassing things over the years, Selena Gomez has truly outperformed everyone in the race of “who can be the shadiest and the meanest?”

This all started at the end of February 2023, but it blew up in March 2023, when Selena completely unprovoked, commented on a TikTok video where a creator called Hailey a bitch because she perceived her to be shading Selena.

This is all because Hailey was in a video recreating a popular tiktok sound with her friends:

There was no correlation to Hailey making fun of Selena’s weight and this is a receipt not even brought up today because of how it aged due to its lack of credibility in an argument.

And yet Selena commented under the video, reaffirming what was said in the video which was that Hailey the “bitch” was shading Selena who gained weight.

2 years later… Selena admitted that she gets bitter when people make fun of her weight.

What are the odds that Selena was lashing out at Hailey in March 2023 in a moment of bitterness?

It seemed like Selena was possibly projecting and taking the video personally because of her insecurities. If so, then that discredits her as a source.

In 2020, Selena said, “I wouldn’t want to say the wrong thing, and I wouldn’t want people to think that I had any other motive, other than just being a kind person.”

But if you have to tell us that you didn’t have any other motive… it seems like you did have a motive. Why would that even come to mind?

No-Motive-Selena, who was done being silent… truly let us know how done she was when she embarked on her Ruining Hailey Bieber Tour (sold out internationally).

“There was money to be made when it came to anti-Hailey propaganda,” a source tells me.

This is why companies and brands alike all participated and aided into the Team Selena vs. Team Hailey war by announcing that they were Team Selena.

Here are a few examples:

RareBeauty even directly interacted with content that was pushing the Hailey vs. Selena narrative (even though the video wasn’t hateful, the climate surrounding it definitely was).

Rare Beauty influencers who were handpicked to make content with Selena were also perpetuating this narrative online.

The smear campaign against Hailey that was perpetrated by Selena Gomez fans was later referenced in court documents in December 2024 by Justin Baldoni’s PR team, who wanted a similar example done to Blake Lively.

Keep in mind that Blake Lively’s team omitted certain texts in their lawsuit to portray Justin Baldoni in a certain light and he countered their claims with his lawsuit, which we did a deep dive about here.

In January 2025, Puck News revealed that Rhode was originally set to launch in Sephora, but a source disclosed that the presence of Selena's brand, Rare Beauty, has been the main obstacle preventing Sephora from partnering with Hailey.

They revealed that Rhode will be launching in Sephora later this year as the deal is finalized. However, the delay wasn’t due to the brand needing time to establish itself—after all, it brought in $90 million in revenue during the last two months of 2024—but rather because of Selena Gomez.

Here’s an excerpt from Puck News:

But another high-level source confirmed that Gomez was definitely the reason for the delay, plus “general reticence” overall with respect to celebrity brands. “It took them close to a decade to bring in Ariana Grande’s fragrance,” this source noted, adding that although Gomez’s Rare Beauty is “great,” the business is still maturing. “They need new hits constantly.” (Sephora did not respond to a request for comment.)

There’s more inside information pertaining to this argument, especially about Selena retaliating whenever Hailey is doing well, so stay tuned for that post. But for now, let’s talk about Selena’s role in the public eye.

Selena’s Role in the Hailey Bieber Smear Campaign

Selena’s role in the Hailey Bieber smear campaign is very damning because it’s dangerous and there’s a lot of evidence to back it up.

Her comments throughout the years have egged on the general public to keep this narrative going in order to protect Selena who may not really need their protection.

Even when she did speak out, she made sure to mention that it was something she was doing as a favor to Hailey who “reached out” to her—an opener that didn’t need to be there.

This alone, started an aftershock of a hate train with stans calling out Hailey for burdening Selena with this after she already put Selena through “so much.”

Fans didn’t listen to Selena because Selena made sure to let us know that she was inconvenienced by Hailey and bothered.

Despite the mounting evidence of Selena’s role in this whole play, everything she did went unnoticed, even though the lashings are still prevalent today.

What if Selena’s comments under anti-Bieber TikToks were all fueled by insecurity, bitterness, and self-projection as she admits?

Selena herself didn’t credit her teenage romance with Justin, saying in 2015, “People are making it out to be something that is more tragic than it really was. We grew up together. We both made mistakes. That’s it.”

And while Selena had enlightening things to say, considering she was actually in the relationship, her actions reflect those of a woman who can’t move on and is taking her insecurities out on the woman who did move on with her life.

Regardless of how people believe Hailey got Justin or if she deserved to “win” over Selena in the quest for Justin Bieber (you all sound deranged), it’s concerning that Selena’s behavior in the public eye went unnoticed by the media whilst a fake like of Hailey Bieber’s on a platform where the general public couldn’t even fact-check it, was quickly covered by the media.

Hailey’s faux-like has received more attention and media coverage than Selena’s very dangerous track record of inciting hate. Because of this, the media is complicit in the smear campaign against Hailey Bieber, as they purposely leave out information that could definitely change the narrative, especially when we see Selena Gomez for who she truly is—a woman affirming and interacting with hateful posts about her ex’s wife.

In 2021, a Scandalous Media source exposed that Selena’s team is reportedly PAYING to have the media still write Jelena stories. The fact that in 2025, we are still hearing of Jelena and anti-Hailey narratives to push the Jelena-one-that-got-away narrative is confirmation of that information.

Here’s a small slideshow:

Selena did all of this in March 2023 and not once was her behavior mentioned by the media or by anyone reporting on this story.

If it wasn’t for this blog, those receipts would have disappeared and the lie that keeps persisting would have been taken as the truth.

My source told me that in 2023, Justin and Selena were in contact and Selena believed that Justin would leave Hailey for her. That information provides context to this post that Selena liked after going on an anti-Hailey parade on TikTok:

She was even liking Jelena content and photos of Justin years before, so this is a pattern of hers that has persisted.

This is all because Justin made his choice when it came to his life partner and Selena has a lot of regret for the way her life turned out (I have inside tea about this coming soon).

It’s the story she told everyone.

“He didn’t fight for us. SHE got in the way. I am a victim.”

And those in her circle regurgitated the same story, where she held no accountability.

Selena famously went on a short-lived mental health break after interacting with anti-Hailey content for 72 hours.

We should all know less about each other and we should all pay attention less to ourselves, because we are bound to focus on the negative and this is a theme we see with Selena in the public eye.

Selena pays so much attention to giving us an update about her life 24/7. It’s not normal to have this much access to her inner thoughts and constantly hear an update about how she’s feeling.

Selena herself pays an unhealthy amount of attention to her life and every little thing that bothers her.

The more you feed something, the more it grows.

It’s why we see her peers move past far more traumatic things than a teenage-relationship-gone-wrong and not have that as a defining moment in their career.

Everything people are accusing Hailey of doing to Selena actually seems to be the opposite when you look at the evidence.

In March 2025, it was reported that Hailey was exploring legal options against her haters.

This doesn’t mean that she’s going to be suing every troll, but this places a newfound boundary when it comes to creators spreading misinformation by using their platform.

If you intend to maliciously spread false lies that have a harmful outcome (example: loss of a job, hurt reputation, etc.), then yes, you qualify as someone who can be sued.

After all, not everyone can be Scandalous Media ;)

The latest drama has been about Justin Bieber “crashing out” over Selena Gomez on Instagram… it was backed up by a million memes posted on his story and the launch of his new brand Skylrk, where it shows him metaphorically burning his past life down and walking into the light with his wife and son.

I have a lot of inside tea coming, but this is the latest update.

I will be posting a lot about Jailey and Selena as this mess has gotten out of hand and as someone who has been an outlet for inside sources for 12+ years, it’s only fair to share what I know… with all of you.

With that being said, what are some other topics you would like us to explore?

I hope you enjoyed this post! Do you think Hailey Bieber is a victim of a smart campaign? Why or why not? Is Selena Gomez as innocent as she seems?

Let me know what you think down in the comments below and share additional info/insight you have for us in the comment section.

Where to find or contact us:

ExposingSMG

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Next

The Missing Puzzle Piece in Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez’s 2018 Love Story + How Justin and Hailey Bieber Eventually Got Married