KUALA LUMPUR – Social media users have started a major international movement against celebrities who do not use their platforms to speak out in support of Palestine.
Deemed the #Blockout2024 movement, the trend which began on TikTok is putting out a call to action for everyone to unfollow and block a long list of A-listers. This includes award-winning musicians, actors, and influencers among others – and also extends to their businesses and brands.
The movement, which started on May 8, is also a call to boycott celebrities who have never donated to help besieged Gaza, despite their millionaire or billionaire status.
Circulated names include top artists with huge fanbases reaching up to the billions. Among the circulated names are Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian and the whole Kardashian-Jenner family, Drake, Gal Gadot, Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Hamill, and hundreds of others.
About one day after the movement started, Kim Kardashian is said to have lost over 3 million followers.
The pressure to end the war on Gaza has recently escalated with student encampments popping up in top international universities initiated by Columbia University, with protests erupting in 140 US universities as of May 6.
The list of universities participating in the pro-Palestine protest now includes established institutions from all over the world including UK’s prestigious Oxford and Cambridge, and other US Ivy League institutes like Harvard, Brown, and Yale.
The list goes on with big names like Leipzig University in Germany, Sciences Po in France, and the University of Amsterdam, which sparked a mass arrest.
Tension was then further heightened with Israel breaking a truce deal hours after Hamas accepted it by striking the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing on May 6.
Coincidentally, the annual Met Gala took place on the same day the Rafah attacks started. Tickets to the prestigious star-studded fashion event are said to be priced at US$75,000 per person (approximately RM355,400).
TikTok user @blockout2024 supposedly initiated the blocking spree when he posted a video combining clips from the Met Gala and attacks in Palestine. He then urged everyone to stop engaging and following celebrities who are not using their influence to voice out for Palestine.
“Block celebrities on social media so they don’t earn ad revenues from you,” he said in one of the videos.
The “block party” also took off when US influencer Haley Baylee posted a clip of her in her Met Gala outfit and quoted Marie Antoinette’s famous “let them eat cake”.
This further angered social media users as the saying, in context, stemmed from the obliviousness of the monarch to the conditions and daily lives of ordinary people.
The unrest continued to heighten with netizens calling it a real-life “Hunger Games” as they took to social media to post photos of celebrities in extravagant outfits next to the suffering children in Palestine.
X user @justnihaad said it is “insane” that people are “oohing and aahing over people in pretty gowns while children are being literally murdered.”
This juxtaposition has divided the internet as some claimed that celebrities do not have an obligation to voice out, and some highlighted that it could result in contract breaches for brand or business deals. Meanwhile, others insisted that these are the very reasons to join #Blockout2024.
TikTok user @jesstheprequeldoesmiami, who claimed she has been a marketer for 15 years, said that although some are saying celebrities can just buy fake followers, the boycott will still impact their engagement and sentiments surrounding them.
According to her, these are key factors for brands in choosing an ambassador. Therefore, although it may not seem to have an impact now, it will eventually “do more damage than people realise”.
As the sentiments surrounding “silent celebrities” turn sour, many are also pointing out that this may be the beginning to the end of parasocial relationships or obsession with famous people, also known as “stan culture”.
Though the movement started on Tiktok, it has since spread to X, Instagram, Facebook, and others. – May 11, 2024