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Justin Bieber And Hailee Steinfeld Are Not Dating, Why Fake News Remains A Problem

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 23:50 PST, May 2, 2017

Justin Bieber is not dating Hailee Steinfeld.

Despite a TMZ report alleging otherwise, Bieber and Steinfeld has not “left the friend zone” as the gossip site claims.

Apart from the fact that the 20-year-old actress-singer has been dating boyfriend Cameron Smoller for around a year, Steinfeld’s rep has confirmed that Hailey and Justin are friends and Hailee is still dating Smoller.

The fake news “Justin Bieber dating Hailey Steinfeld” story was originally reported by TMZ on Tuesday (May 2), after a pic of the pair chatting in an open seated area in a hotel in a New York City surfaced on Monday night.

TMZ had alleged Steinfeld, 20, and the Biebs, 23, have “been seeing each other for a little over a month” after they were “introduced” by pastor, Carl Lentz, of Hillsong Church NYC.

The Pitch Perfect 2 starlet was spotted talking to Justin in an NYC hotel after a solo attendance at the Met Gala on Monday night. The two were also photographed FaceTiming last month.

Multiple sources have now shot down TMZ’s false Bieber-Steinfeld dating story.

As well as Hailee’s rep refuting the claim, Us Weekly reports a source informed the magazine that Hailee is still in a relationship with Smoller.

Smoller and Steinfeld often post photos of each other on Instagram. Earlier this week, he shared a seemingly loved-up pic with Steinfeld on his Instagram account.

In addition, the ever-reliable Gossip Cop reports another source known to them and Steinfeld’s team have slammed TMZ’s story as “100 percent untrue.”

The same source added there is “zero truth, none whatsoever” to the new dating claim.

In the snap shown below, Hailee’s hair is styled in the same up-do that she wore to the Met Gala hours before meeting up with Justin at the hotel.

The photo shows Steinfeld and Bieber apparently having a conversation. But their friendship has not become romantic, as Gossip Cop, Us Weekly, Page Six and E! News confirm.

Justin and Hailey were not alone at the NYC hotel, not that it should matter regardless.

Other paparazzi-obtained photos show the Biebs leaving the Catch hotspot with longtime friend, pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong Church NYC before going to the hotel.

The pop prince was later spotted talking to the pastor in the same hotel area where he also spoke to Steinfeld.

The Canadian superstar has known Lentz since 2008. Both Justin and Hailee have been spotted at Hillsong churches separately on different occasions.

However, TMZ’s assertion that Bieber and Steinfeld were “introduced” by Lentz because of their Hillsong connection is incorrect.

In fact, the two have known each other as casual acquaintances on the young Hollywood scene since Justin was 16 and Hailee was 14.

Incidentally, on the night of the Met Gala Bieber fans noted that the pop icon unfollowed several people on Instagram. Steinfeld was one of them.

The Refiney29 site makes the valid point that unfollowing someone on Instagram is a weird thing to do if they were supposedly romantically involved. Steinfeld doesn’t follow Bieber either.

As the Inquisitr has reported many times, Bieber is one of many stars frequently used as clickbait in fabricated or widely exaggerated fake stories to lure viewers or readers to news sites and networks.

Why? After the explosive increase of media outlets in the early 90’s alongside the digital revolution and start and spread of social media platforms, the competitive nature of market-driven news-gathering has become almost completely focused on chasing clickbait instead of solid journalism.

Fact-checking has taken a backseat to outlets and networks using sensationalized headlines with often fictional or skewed content to attract an audience by any means necessary.

Over the past two years, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, and Google spoke about the need to remove fake news. The search engine revealed it has tweaked its algorithms to enable this.

However, fake news is still produced and still perpetuated because once published or aired, it spreads.

Freedom of the press, relative non-regulation of the Internet and the public’s appetite for scandal adds to the problem. For now, each fake news report has to be rebutted case-by-case.

To reiterate: Justin Bieber and Hailee Steinfeld are not dating, and Hailee is still dating her boyfriend, Smoller.

The Inquisitr adds that numerous media outlets inevitably romantically link the Biebs to any female that he is spotted with, often without factual basis. On another note, chatter about Bieber and Steinfeld collaborating musically is now at an all-time high.

[Featured Image By Jesse Grant/Getty Images; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Nickelodeon]

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