Britney Spears' followers have been inspecting her latest Instagram for clues, following the release of The New York Times documentary, Framing Britney Spears.
The doc - which aired on Hulu, FX and dropped on Sky on Tuesday - shone the spotlight on the pop-star's controversial conservatorship, which she has been in since 2008, and raised questions about whether her father, Jamie Spears, should still be in control of her estate.
And while those supporting the #FreeBritney movement have been dissecting her social media posts for years, this has only amplified in the wake of the show, with more and more fans flocking to look for secret messages.
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The most recent example is that of a scrabble board posted on the Circus singer's Instagram feed, which clearly contains both real and made up words.
It appears the singer, 39, was playing a loose match of scrabble, which means you can also spell words backwards.
Writing in the caption, Britney, 39, tasked fans with finding a fake word.
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"Can you find a word that isn't actually a word ????" she wrote. "Sometimes it's fun to make ones up !!!!"
In response, many concerned followers responded questioning whether Britney was speaking in code, or trying to get their attention.
"The whole world is trying to decode right now," one of the singer's 28.1 million followers wrote.
Meanwhile, another penned: "Someone decipher this. I'm sure there's a secret code in there."
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One word that seemed to catch fans' attention was TIUQ, which was 'quit' spelt backwards.
"If you're looking for a clue, that's it," one fan concluded. However, others were drawn to different words, like AMGOD, which spelt 'dogma' when reversed.
"Dogma: a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true," one wrote, pointing at the supposed links to the singer's own life.
There were also words on the board that didn't even mean something when spelt backwards, and were therefore truly 'fake'.
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Examples include SODELN and ABIRV - but the jury is still out on what they mean (if anything).
If you really want to do some digging, one fan went as far as to make a Google Doc, which featured all the words on the board, their anagrams an their spellings backwards.
You really can't fault their dedication!
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It undoubtedly seems far fetched to believe that the singer is truly sending online messages - especially given that many believe she doesn't even have access to her own social media.
Plus, even if she does, many believe she might just be having fun.
However, there are some supporters who are concerned that the singer's failure to plainly address the documentary, and the conservatorship scandal, means she has somehow been silenced.
Whether right or wrong, they therefore assume that speaking in code is the only way that Britney can get through to her fans.
As conservator, Britney's dad Jamie has had control over her life for more than a decade, ever since the pop singer suffered a very public breakdown 12 years ago.
Conservatorship is when a person is appointed by the courts to manage all areas of someone's life (for example, career decisions and finances) if they suffer with physical or mental limitations.
Initially, and for the first 11 years, Britney's dad was co-conservator along with lawyer Andrew M Wallet. However, Andrew resigned in 2019 which gave Jamie sole conservatorship.
Jamie stepped down for a period last year due to health problems, and immediately, Britney said she "strongly opposed" his return - with her lawyer Sam Ingham beginning an attempt to remove him from the position and alleging she was "afraid" of him.
Instead, Britney wanted her temporary personal conservator Jodi Montgomery to be made permanent, while leaving open the option to potentially terminate the deal in the future if she wishes.
However, in November, the judge in the case refused to remove Jamie, but did opt to add a third party - Bessemer Trust - as co-conservator and corporate fiduciary.
This decision was later upheld last week.
The #FreeBritney campaign was launched as far back as 2009 and some fans have even asked the White House to end the conservatorship, with a petition reaching 125,000 signatures.
Others have protested at court hearings and the hashtag has been widely trending on social media.
Britney has never commented on the #FreeBritney campaign publicly, but she did share a statement this week, which many thought was hinting at the reaction to the documentary.
Sharing a video of her performing Toxic at New Years Rockin' Eve ball in 2018, Britney wrote on Instagram: "Can't believe this performance of Toxic is from three years ago !!! I'll always love being on stage .... but I am taking the time to learn and be a normal person ..... I love simply enjoying the basics of every day life!!!!
"Each person has their story and their take on other people's stories!!!! We all have so many different bright beautiful lives!!!
"Remember, no matter what we think we know about a person's life it is nothing compared to the actual person living behind the lens."
The singer's boyfriend, Sam Asghari, also spoke out following the doc.
Addressing recent criticism of Britney's father, Sam said: "Now it's important for people to understand that I have zero respect for someone trying to control our relationship and constantly throwing obstacles our way."
In the statement - posted on his Instagram Stories, the 27-year-old went on: "In my opinion Jamie is a total d**k."
You can read more about that here.
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