As the war in Gaza continues and the Palestinian death toll approaches 35,000, social media users are en masse blocking celebrities and influencers who do not publicly support Palestine.
Shortly after the Met Gala earlier this month, TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside tweeted on May 9, “Block all celebrities, influencers, and wealthy socialites who don't use their resources to help people in serious situations.” “It's time for a digital guillotine,” he wrote. ”
“We gave them a platform. It’s time to take it back and take away our opinions, likes, comments and money by blocking them on all social media and digital platforms. ” said @ladyfromtheoutside on a TikTok with 2.5 million views.
Surprise, surprise, #blockout2024.
Although the hashtag campaign didn't begin with a definitive list of celebrities to block, many people have begun blocking some of today's most popular celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift.
And it seems to be working, albeit to a small degree. Some stars who only saw their follower numbers increase on a daily basis quickly started losing followers.
According to Social Blade, a website that tracks followers and following statistics across multiple social media sites, Kardashian lost 44,000 followers on Instagram the same day @ladyfromtheoutside posted the TikTok. The next day, Kardashian lost another 123,000. Swift lost 26,000 Instagram followers on May 9th and 103,000 followers on May 11th. Selena Gomez lost 17,000 Instagram followers on May 9th, and she's been losing followers on Instagram since the beginning of the month, long before the digital guillotine was announced.
Still, the number of followers these triple-A celebrities have is miniscule compared to the total number of followers. For example, Kardashian and Swift boast 363 million and 283 million followers on Instagram, respectively.
By blocking celebrities and influencers, people hope to take away their views. Without views, sponsored posts from celebrities and influencers aren't as valuable. For a celebrity like Kardashian, who earns up to $1 million from sponsored Instagram posts, blocking her can have big consequences. If she doesn't have many followers, companies may not be willing to pay her as much for sponsored posts.
Eddie Borges-Rey, a visiting associate professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that “social media celebrities rely heavily on high visibility and engagement to attract and maintain advertising deals.” Ta.
Brooke Erin Duffy, a communications professor at Cornell University, told Time that this kind of boycott could “weaponize the platform's metric system.”
On Monday, Lizzo posted a TikTok thanking Palestinian activists. She also posted about a GoFundMe page for Palestinians who want her to flee, but people criticized Lizzo for not paying her full amount.
One TikTok user said in a video: “Either pay the full amount or split it between 3 friends who are very rich.''
Another TikTok account with the same name as the hashtag, @blockout2024, posts a new list of celebrities and influencers to block every day.
“The amount of attention we give them and the amount of engagement we give them is their immediate currency,” the user said. “Take it away from them.”
