A new digital protest movement has emerged in the past few days, urging social media users to block celebrities who have remained silent or supportive of the death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave unfolding in Gaza.
The “Blockout 2024” campaign has gained significant traction, with thousands of people participating in the effort to hold celebrities accountable for their lack of support for Palestinians. The idea of the campaign is to block prominent celebrities on social media platforms such as Instagram, microblogging site X and TikTok.
The Met Gala controversy
The campaign that took off after the Met Gala on May 6 has earned the names: Blockout 2024, Celebrity Block List and Digitine. The online movement was sparked after images of lavishly dressed celebrities surfaced online, triggering netizens who felt these individuals had not acknowledged the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
It is pertinent to mention here that over 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the 7-month war, most of them women and children.
‘Blockout 2024’
The “Blockout 2024” is an online campaign that has been compared to the French Revolution’s guillotine, with users referring to it as the “digitine” or the “digital guillotine.” In the movement, users are carrying out a digital boycott of celebrities ranging from Hollywood actors to social media influencers for their silence on Israel’s war on Gaza.
Various TikTok, Instagram and X users have begun circulating short clips where they are seen guiding how to block these celebrities. Users have also released lists of celebrities and their businesses on social media.
According to users, the main object of the move is to reduce the earnings the celebrities make through ads on social media platforms.
Celebrities targeted
Notable figures like Zendaya, Drake, Justin Bieber, and the Kardashian family are among the targeted celebrities. Even ardent fans of these stars have announced their decisions to unfollow and block the very individuals they once admired.
‘Let them eat cake’ moment
A video of TikTok influencer Haley Kalil lip-syncing the phrase “let them eat cake” outside the Met Gala went viral on May 7. Kalil’s @haleyybaylee TikTok account has 9.9 million followers.
However, Kalil’s video stirred anger among the netizens who called out the TikTok star for being insensitive towards the backdrop of the starvation crisis in Gaza. There has been a famine in Gaza.
The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, stated in a news interview just two days before the Met Gala on May 4 that there is a “full-blown famine” occurring in northern Gaza.
After the massive backlash on social media, Kalil immediately issued an apology video on May 10 on her TikTok account and justified her use of the audio by saying that it was a trending audio on TikTok. She further clarified 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.
Reactions and Impact
Netizens across the globe started the Blockout campaign only a few days ago, however, many prominent celebrities have started to lose followers on a massive level.
According to the NPR report, Taylor Swift lost roughly 300,000 followers on TikTok and about 50,000 followers on Instagram over the past week.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Sayima Ahmad | 
