The campaign to 'free' Britney Spears is gaining steam again after celebrities voice concern over conspiracy theory

• Britney Spears' father and lawyer have had control of her assets more 12 years as part of a court-ordered conservatorship.
• Spears' fans are increasingly worried about her well-being thanks to the #FreeBritney conspiracy theory, which has added unverified details to the story of her conservatorship.
• The #FreeBritney hashtag continues to gain attention on social media, as celebrities including Paris Hilton comment on posts theorizing about Spears' current situation.
• Spears fans even created a White House petition that successfully secured over 100,000 signatures, which should trigger a future response from the Trump administration.

Millions of people around the world have marveled at pop icon Britney Spears' social media presence during the coronavirus pandemic. Wearing rolled-up shorts low on her hips, crop tops, and a lot of eyeliner, Spears dances around her mansion, posting videos on TikTok and Instagram.

In a video posted Tuesday, Spears, 38, improvised a dance to Rihanna's "Never Ending." Thousands of commenters wrote "Free Britney," referencing a now-popular conspiracy theory which has been boosted by celebrities including Paris Hilton, Rose McGowan, and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi.

The conspiracy theory builds off of the public battle over Spears' mental health that resulted in her financial assets being put under her father's and lawyer's control after she was "hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation," The New York Times reported at the time. For more than a decade, fans of Spears have been calling to "Free Britney," the battle cry of a movement dedicated to getting Spears out of her conservatorship.

A representative for Spears did not return Insider's recent request for comment.

The #FreeBritney campaign is going viral once again amid Spears' numerous Instagram and TikTok videos

The #FreeBritney hashtag has been extremely popular on social media in recent days. As of Thursday morning, there are more than 89,000 Instagram posts using the hashtag, and 85 million views on TikTok videos using it in captions. There is even a successful White House petition that's received over 100,000 signatures, which is supposed to secure a future response from the Trump administration.

Popular Instagram meme accounts began showing support for #FreeBritney, reigniting the campaign, in addition to the accounts like @freebritneyla that are devoted to the movement.

A post from @dirty2000s, which usually shares nostalgic images and memes from the early aughts, sought to explain the conservatorship and reached more than 500,000 likes in four days, but includes unverified details of the legal agreement. For example, the post alleges that Spears is not "allowed" to sing live, though she did in a 2017 concert, and many pop stars who dance in their performances often choose to lip sync.

The @dirty2000s post also references the story of Spears' 2004 "Original Doll" album, a collection of more soulful pop music from Spears that was never released. Journalist Hunter Schwarz wrote for BuzzFeed in 2014 that "the mystery of Britney Spears' 'lost album' remains, and piecing together its story offers a rare and revealing look inside the mind of a carefully managed pop icon before her fall."

Another popular claim in the Free Britney movement shared in the viral @dirty2000s post is the notion that Spears' father had sought conservatorship by claiming that his daughter had early onset dementia in her 20s. While conservatorships are often used in cases of dementia, this remains unproven, aside from screenshots of unverified court documents on Reddit. The post also claims that due to the conservatorship, Spears cannot leave her home, buy Starbucks, go shopping, have children, vote, or use a cell phone without being monitored. There is no evidence to support these claims, though it's true that Spears does not have control over financial or business decisions.

Among the thousands of comments on this post was one from Paris Hilton, who shared 2000s primetime fame with Spears. Hilton commented a heartbreak emoji and crying emoji.

On Monday, "Snooki" of "Jersey Shore" fame tweeted out a popular 2015 YouTube video that alleges Spears was forced to stifle her singing voice in order to sound more childlike, and wrote "#FreeBritney." This is another unfounded yet popular conspiracy theory about Spears' career. As Andrew Male of The Guardian wrote in 1999, Spears' producers Max Martin and Eric Foster White "crafted a sugar-coated sound that is safe yet funky, chaste yet vaguely suggestive," but the video's claim that Spears has been forced to "hide" her naturally strong register is unproven. As recently as 2017, Spears sang with her deep tone in a live cover of Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About."

Rose McGowan, the actor and activist, has spoken out against Spears' conservatorship multiple times. On Tuesday, in an Instagram post about the late actor Brittany Murphy, McGowan said, "There's another Britney on my mind today, too, one that is alive, one that can be saved from the leaches that are controlling and trafficking her. Free all the Britneys and all those who get hurt by the trauma of Hollywood values and toxic 'rules.'"

Miley Cyrus also called to "free Britney" during a concert in Memphis last year.

The #FreeBritney campaign has existed for more than a decade

The campaign originated in 2009, when a fan website first used the phrase in reference to her conservatorship, which is also known as legal guardianship, The New York Times reported.

The court-ordered guardianship is meant for people who cannot care for themselves, but #FreeBritney activists claim that Spears is fine mentally. #FreeBritney believers point to Spears' ability to put out four albums and go on multiple world tours in the last 12 years as proof that the singer doesn't need a conservatorship. The grassroots movement holds rallies in Los Angeles, often showing support outside courthouses during conservatorship hearings.

The #FreeBritney hashtag had another viral resurgence in 2019, when Spears reportedly spent time in a mental-health facility. Soon after, TMZ reported that Spears told a judge during a May 10 hearing that her father, Jamie Spears, had "committed her to a mental facility ... against her will and also forced her to take drugs." TMZ did not reveal its sourcing, but said that someone with "direct knowledge" reported that information to them.

As Emily Yahr of The Washington Post reported in May 2019, some people close to Spears have pushed back on #FreeBritney. Larry Rudolph, Spears' manager, told Yahr that the "conservatorship is not a jail." Rudolph is not part of the conservatorship. "It helps Britney make business decisions and manage her life in ways she can't do on her own right now," he said.

At a second hearing in September 2019, after an alleged altercation between Spears' father and one of her two sons, a judge decided that Jamie Spears would retain conservatorship over his daughter's finances, but Jodi Montgomery, who is Spears' "care manager," would become the conservator for Spears' personal life, People reported.

• Read more:
• Inside Britney Spears' conservatorship, the 12-year legal arrangement that prevents the pop star from controlling her life and $59 million fortune
• The #FreeBritney conspiracy theory says Britney Spears is being held against her will, and her mom appears to support it
• How Bollywood gave Britney Spears her greatest hit
• 22 things you probably didn't know about Britney Spears