Do we like Justin Bieber?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a few old scrapes, with a lot of kindness in the mix, but a recent private gig has people asking questions.
The big story of his year is the comeback. In April 2026 he headlined Coachella, with guests including The Kid Laroi, Dijon, Tems and Wizkid, and a medley of the old hits. Before the festival he told his Twitch viewers he was putting on “a hell of a show”, which for a bloke who spent years out of the live game is a fair promise.
Now the harm check, which is the main thing here. We found no harmful words or campaigning from him on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or race. In 2018 a viral video showed him telling a fan who'd come out as queer that he was sorry about the homophobia she'd faced, and inviting her to his church. He was also leaning on a church that critics said wasn't affirming, so that one cuts both ways.
On immigration he has put his name to the right side of it more than once. In July 2019 he replied to a Trump tweet about a detained friend by asking Trump to let “those kids out of cages”, a reference to migrant children in US border detention. In 2026 he and Hailey Bieber wore ICE Out pins to the Grammys. We found nothing on him either way on climate or vaccines, and that is honestly a gap, not a pass.
The messy bit is the Palantir gig. IBTimes reports that Bieber played a private set of about 30 minutes at an invitation-only conference in Montecito where Palantir CEO Alex Karp was present, and that Palantir has signed ICE contracts worth tens of millions since 2025, citing an SEC filing. Bieber hasn't commented, so what he knew or thought is unknown. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a paid gig or as a contradiction with the pin.
In 2020 two women accused him on Twitter of sexual assault, in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Bieber called the claims “factually impossible”, posted receipts on where he was, and sued them for $20 million. He later dropped that suit, and his lawyer said he had “decided to move on”, so nothing was ever decided in court either way.
The older stain is the 2013 egging of a neighbour's house in Calabasas. He completed probation under a plea deal and paid $80,000 in restitution, and in 2018 the neighbours' lawsuit, which also alleged spitting and loud parties, was settled with no terms disclosed. It reads as a young star who got a bit much, rather than a pattern of cruelty.