Alicia Keys hit a sour note during her rendition of "If I Ain't Got You" at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 11.
It didn't throw the rest of the performance off, and many people found it commendable that Keys sang live instead of relying on a backing track.
But some commentators are concerned that the minor vocal flub has been edited out of the official halftime show video uploaded to the NFL's YouTube channel. Bootleg clips of the untouched live performance are also reportedly being taken down as quickly as possible.
'If they'll do it for something as trivial as one sour note during a halftime show, they'll do it for the really consequential stuff,' one person said.
T. Becket Adams – a columnist for outlets like The Hill, National Review and The D.C. Examiner – spoke out about the situation in a lengthy tweet thread on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
"We need to talk more about what record-keeping should look like in the Internet era. Because things like this audio swap – with no explanation or heads up given – is crazy-making," he said. "How are we ever supposed to return to something approximating a consensual reality when even the trivial things we experience as a nation undergo stealth edits?"
Although the edits may seem insignificant at first, Adams argued that media outlets could be heading down a slippery slope.
"It seems really bad when any entity, let alone a mega-corporation, gets into the habit of insisting against the factual record that the thing you saw and heard didn’t actually happen the way you saw and heard it," he said.
"If they'll do it for something as trivial as one sour note during a halftime show, they'll do it for the really consequential stuff."
Adams argued that the consequences could be grave if moves like this become commonplace.
"The point is that the CONSTANT unannounced tweaks and edits are an unnecessary strain on our memories & recollections," he said. "Keep it up and soon people won't trust *anything* they see online."
Many commenters below Adams' thread agreed with the columnist's analysis.
One even shared a passage from 1984, a dystopian novel about brainwashing and the risks of authoritarian government.
Many are concerned that the practice could make it hard for people to believe what they see.
The situation comes just weeks after X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, blocked searches for Taylor Swift after AI-generated nudes of the pop star went viral on the platform.
The images prompted a response from the Biden administration.
"It is alarming," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. "While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual intimate imagery of real people."
Keys' intimate dance routine with Usher also made headlines earlier this week.
The edits weren't the first time Keys' halftime cameo made headlines in recent days. Many viewers were shocked by the intimate dance routine she performed with Usher.
Keys' producer husband Swizz Beatz took to Instagram on Monday, Feb. 12 to defend her.
"Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing!!!" he said. "Y’all don’t see that amazing dress covering the entire stadium. Tonight’s performance was nothing but amazing with 2 amazing Giants ! Congrats (Usher) and my love (Keys) that song is a classic. We don’t do negative vibes on this side we make history."
