Why are celebrities being blocked on social media?
Why are celebrities being blocked on social media?
Also: Florida bans rainbow bridges, College grads doing surprisingly well and Taylor vs. The Beatles
This year’s Met Gala in New York City unfolded with a good deal of drama—not on the red carpet, but on social media.
The annual party attracts numerous famous faces from fashion, movies, music and sports. It's renowned for its extravagant arrivals carpet and elaborate outfits worn by celebrities. This year, however, the gala was surrounded by protesters against the Israeli war in Gaza for much of the evening.
Social media was inundated with images from the star-studded event spliced together with Israel launching a military operation in Rafah. This stark contrast led some users to criticize the disparity between the gala's opulence and the dire situation for the Palestinians in Gaza. They condemned celebrities for not using their platforms to speak up for those suffering.
The largest controversy about the event began when fashion influencer Haley Kalil, also an E! News host, shared a video of her outfit for the Met Gala red carpet on TikTok to her two million followers. Accompanied by an audio snippet from the film "Marie Antoinette," the infamous line, "Let them eat cake," was invoked—a reference to the queen of France dismissing the starving poor people. She was ultimately beheaded by a guillotine.
What started as an innocent nod to fashion, history, and pop culture quickly drew criticism from TikTok users, who accused Kalil of insensitivity, in light of the war in Gaza. The backlash against Kalil's video, which has since been deleted, soon gave rise to the Blockout 2024, or Operation Blockout—a grassroots digital initiative aimed at holding celebrities accountable for their perceived silence or inaction on the conflict in Gaza and other pressing social issues.
The Blockout campaign initially targeted attendees of the Gala, including Zendaya, who was a co-host, and Vogue Magazine, a sponsor of the event. However, it quickly expanded to encompass celebrities like Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Tom Brady, and Selena Gomez, who found themselves targeted by social media calling for a boycott of celebrity content by blocking them on various platforms, to diminish their influence and divert attention from their content. TikTok influencer @ladyfromtheoutside described it as a "digital guillotine."
“We gave them their platforms,” she said in a video post, which has more than 2.5 million views on TikTok. “It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money by blocking them on all social media and digital platforms.”
In effect, the Blockout movement turned social media platforms into battlegrounds for digital activism, with users sharing block lists, organizing protests, and demanding a reevaluation of celebrity responsibility. Social Blade, which tracks the stats of social media platforms, estimates some celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian have lost hundreds of thousands of followers since Operation Blockout began, but Zivvy cannot independently substantiate the numbers.
Despite its widespread support, the movement also faced criticism from some about its effectiveness, concerns of censorship, and the superficiality of blocking celebrities who aren’t experts on these issues. However, supporters of Operation Blockout argue that it represented more than just a protest—it symbolized a call to action to demand accountability from those in positions of power and influence. It underscored the evolving role of social media as a catalyst for change, where ordinary individuals could unite and effect meaningful discourse and action in the digital age.
What do you think of Operation Blockout? Vote and Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
↪ RELATED: Amal Clooney silences TikTok critics after revealing secret work with ICC to prosecute Gaza war crimes (Independent)
🌎 Around the world
➤ The International Criminal Court applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallan.
Here what that means. (Via BBC)
DIG DEEPER:
↪ Read the statement by the prosecutor
↪Is ICC prosecutor right? Read different perspectives and weigh in (Ponderly)
➤ Spain, Norway and Ireland recognize a Palestinian state, a blow to Israel
The European nations joined scores of others that recognize Palestinian statehood, which Israel has long opposed (NY Times)
↪ RELATED: Why the US doesn’t recognize a Palestinian state (@ohmyworldshow)
➤ Iran President killed in helicopter crash
↪ RELATED: Who will replace Iran’s president? It’s the wrong question (Cosmopolitics)
➤ Armies of young insurgents are changing the course of a forgotten war
Abandoned by democracy, thousands of young fighters have left their studies and careers to join established ethnic and resistance groups opposing military rule in Myanmar (BBC)
🗳️ Politics
➤ Supreme Court’s South Carolina ruling on gerrymandering boosts GOP with national implications
The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a lower court finding that South Carolina’s Republican-led legislature redrew the map to make it more favorable to White Republicans by moving Black voters to another district. The ruling is expected to make it more difficult for voters nationwide to challenge racial gerrymandering. (Washington Post)
➤ Florida bans rainbow lights on bridges during pride month, declares “Freedom Summer”
Earlier this month, the Sunshine State effectively announced that it was banning the lighting of bridges in rainbow colors during June by annexing the month as part of its so-called “Freedom Summer.” Between May 27 to September 2, Florida bridges will only be permitted to display the colors of the traditional American flag. (Them)
💰 Money/Career
➤ Biden administration canceling student loans for another 160,000 borrowers
The Education Department announced the latest round of cancellation on Wednesday, saying it will erase $7.7 billion in federal student loans. With the latest action, the administration said it has canceled $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans through several programs. (AP)
➤ Computer science majors graduate into a world of fewer opportunities.
Those from top schools can still get jobs. They are just not all going to Facebook or Google. (WSJ)
➤ Recent college grads are doing shockingly well. What’s happening:
The economy hasn’t been easy for the class of 2020 (and the years around it), but thankfully, it’s getting much better. (CNN)
👩💻 Technology
➤ Scarlett Johansson was "shocked, angered" by OpenAI's ChatGPT voice that sounds like her
The actor released a statement in saying that she declined an offer made in September to voice Chat GPT’s text-to-speech product. But nine-months later, one voice option sounds so much like Johansson that she says she’s "shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference." (CBS News)
➤ Bumble buys community building app Geneva to expand further into friendships
Dating app maker Bumble has acquired Geneva, an online platform built around forming real-world groups and clubs. (Tech Crunch)
⭐ Gen Z in the Spotlight
➤ Caitlin Clark marketing boom is celebrated but also draws questions of race and equity
What makes the pony-tailed Clark, just 22, so special? (LA Times via 2 Urban Girls)
🎓 College Corner
➤ On campus, a new social litmus test: Zionist or not?
Some Jewish students say they’ve been dropped by old roommates and sorority sisters and ostracized from campus clubs and teams because of their views — which are sometimes assumed. (NY Times)
Pop Culture
➤ Is Taylor Swift as big as Michael Jackson and the Beatles?
The singer’s ongoing surge has inspired inevitable debates about how her success stacks up not only against her pop peers, like Beyoncé and Drake, but to the greats that came before them. The New York Times crunched the numbers. (NY Times)
➤ Apple releases top ten albums of all time on 100 Best List
Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums is a modern 21st-century ranking of the greatest records ever made, crafted by Apple Music’s team of experts alongside a select group of artists, songwriters, producers, and industry professionals. The list is an editorial statement, fully independent of any streaming numbers on Apple Music (Apple)
10. Lemonade (2016), Beyoncé
9. Nevermind (1991), Nirvana
8. Back to Black (2006), Amy Winehouse
7. good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), Kendrick Lamar
6. Songs in the Key of Life (1976), Stevie Wonder
5. Blonde (2016), Frank Ocean
4. Purple Rain (1984), Prince & The Revolution
3. Abbey Road (1969), The Beatles
2. Thriller (1982), Michael Jackson
1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill
What do you think the greatest album of all time is? Leave your response in the comments.
📡 On the radar
➤ Pope clears way for 'God's influencer' to become a saint
London-born Carlo Acutis died in 2006 at the age of 15 - whose proficiency at spreading the teachings of the Catholic church online led to him being called "God's influencer" - is set to become a saint. He would be the first millennial - a person born in the early 1980s to late 1990s - to be canonized. (BBC)
➤ Young people are anxious about climate change — and they’re doing something about it.
Though people of all ages have concerns about Earth’s warming climate, no one brings more energy to tackling the problem than young activists. (AP via LinkedIn)
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Because celebrity pictures and profiles are being used to catfish people and people just don’t want to mess with it anymore. If I could be assured that I was actually interacting with the person that I think I’m interacting with that would be great but on the Internet, that’s not the case.=—-.—-