Sarah Shamim
The growing protest efforts against Israel’s war on Gaza have now spawned a cyberspace movement that has erupted in the past few days, targeting celebrities who are seen as being insensitive towards, or even supportive of, the death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave.
The campaign that took off after the Met Gala on May 6 has earned the names: Blockout 2024, celebrity block list and digitine. The idea is to block famous celebrities on social media networks such as Instagram, X and TikTok.
But what’s it all about, why are parallels to the French Revolution coming up, does blocking a celebrity hurt them, and is the campaign seeing any impact?
What is Blockout 2024?
The Blockout 2024 is an online movement where social media users are carrying out a digital boycott of famous celebrities ranging from Hollywood actors to social media influencers for their silence on Israel’s war on Gaza, or in some cases, their purported support for the war.
Various TikTok, Instagram and X users have begun circulating lists of celebrities and their businesses to block.
The point of the move is to reduce the earnings the celebrities make through ads on social media platforms.
#blockout2024 ..🇵🇸
The quickest way to hurt them is by not giving them more money . pic.twitter.com/8PbRA4WvwA— أروى الفضلي🔻 (@arwaalfadly) May 10, 2024
Why was this year’s Met Gala so controversial?
The Blockout movement was set off by this year’s Met Gala, which took place in New York on May 6.
Social media users were upset when images of the lavishly dressed celebrities surfaced online at the annual fundraiser.
They pointed out that some of these celebrities had never made online statements or addressed the continuing war on Gaza, where Israel’s relentless bombardment has killed more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children.
My teacher used to tell us to pay attention to the hunger games bcuz one day we might live thru it.. #HungerGames2024 #metgala pic.twitter.com/EseLImbbca
— Alijah Ortiz (@ortizfealijah) May 13, 2024
The ‘let them eat cake’ moment
On May 7, a video surfaced of TikTok influencer Haley Kalil, lip-syncing the words “let them eat cake”, outside the Met Gala. Kalil has 9.9 million followers on her TikTok account @haleyybaylee.
An influencer straight up making a “let them eat cake” video at the met gala last night. No self awareness at all. None. pic.twitter.com/39rYMZqzLe
— Read Let This Radicalize You (@JoshuaPHilll) May 7, 2024
Those infamous words, often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution, have in popular imagination become synonymous with an elite so disconnected with the lives of citizens unable to find even bread that they suggest cake as an alternative.
Kalil’s video stirred anger because of the backdrop of the starvation crisis in Gaza. Insufficient food has been on the rise over the seven months of war.
Only two days before the Met Gala, on May 4, Cindy McCain, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in a news interview that northern Gaza is experiencing “full blown famine”.
Users online have now started calling the Blockout, the “digitine” or the digital guillotine, leaning into the French Revolution reference.
the point is they’ve been IGNORING the genocide in palestine and the tone deaf “let them eat cake” video was the last straw. we’re fed up of supporting ppl with so money and influence who do absolutely nothing with it. we are the reason they’re rich, we watch
— tati.feli. (@ctrlyoself) May 12, 2024
Kalil issued an apology video on May 10 on her TikTok account. She said that she did not have an actual invite to the Met Gala and was involved in the event only as a host with E! News. She justified her use of the audio by saying that it was a trending audio on TikTok.
“I am not informed enough to talk about it in a meaningful or educational way,” she said in the apology video in response to questions about why she is not talking about what is happening in Gaza. She did not mention “Palestine”, “Gaza” or “Israel” in the video.
“not informed enough” on a gen0cide that’s been happening for 8 months??? she’s acting like she doesn’t have access to all the resources one would need to be informed. how ignorant and disgusting. pic.twitter.com/19aWwZefbB
— kp (@earthlykisssed) May 12, 2024
How does blocking a celebrity affect them?
Besides Kalil, other celebrities on the blocklists include Israeli actor and former soldier Gal Gadot, American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian, American actors Zendaya and Noah Schnapp; American singer Taylor Swift and British singer Harry Styles.
While there have been online movements in the past to unfollow some of the celebrities that are now being blocked, experts have said blocking is more effective as a protest strategy than unfollowing.
The effect of unfollowing on a celebrity’s overall audience and engagement metrics is minimal, Eddy Borges-Rey, an associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar told Al Jazeera. Borges-Rey’s research work examines social media and algorithms.
“Social media celebrities heavily rely on high visibility and engagement to attract and maintain advertising deals,” he said, adding that when someone unfollows a celebrity, they simply stop seeing the celebrity’s posts in their feed. The content can still indirectly show up through their search pages or algorithm-driven feeds such as the Instagram Explore page or the “For You” pages on TikTok and X.
Since even non-followers view the celebrity’s content if they have not blocked the celebrity, this does not significantly hurt the celebrity’s reach.
On the other hand, “if someone blocks the celebrity, they completely cut off all interaction with their content,” said Borges-Rey.
This decreases the celebrity’s audience size, leading social media algorithms to deprioritise their content. As more people block a celebrity, their posts become less visible across the platform, even to those users who have not blocked the celebrities.
“A reduction in visibility can lead advertisers to perceive the celebrity as less valuable, potentially cutting back on the amount they are willing to pay for ads on the celebrity’s profile, thereby directly affecting their ad revenue,” he added.
How have people reacted to the Blockout?
While many social media users online have been proponents and participants of the movement, others have described it as an example of performative activism.
adding bella hadid to the blockout list when she’s a Palestinian woman again shows that it’s all performative. you don’t get to tell a Palestinian how much they should or shouldn’t speak out
— melanie (taylor’s version) (@loverglow13) May 11, 2024
Some have also suggested that posts about the Blockout, by crowding social media, are diverting attention from updates and information about what is actually going on in Palestine, as well as fundraisers for Gaza.
The here’s my blackout celeb list’ videos on tiktok have overtaken the number of informative and actionable fundraising for palestine posts on the fyp and I think we should sit and think about that for a second
— officialhambly she/they (@officialhambly) May 13, 2024
Has the Blockout made a difference so far?
While the Blockout started only a few days ago and the number of people who have blocked a particular account does not show, celebrities have started to lose followers.
On Saturday, NPR reported that Taylor Swift lost roughly 300,000 followers on TikTok and about 50,000 followers on Instagram over the past week.
There’s a massive #Blockout2024 taking place where we block every celebrity that hasn’t spoken up about Palestine or called for a ceasefire. It’s a global movement. They live off of our attention. If they don’t have any, they cease to exert their influence. pic.twitter.com/Tf7YgRhuQx
— Karim Wafa-Al Hussaini (@DrKarimWafa) May 10, 2024
“They [celebrities] live off of our attention,” an X user posted. “If they don’t have any, they cease to exert their influence.”
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