Social media ‘blockout’ targets celebrities for not speaking out on Gaza war

Critics of Israel’s military operations in Gaza are taking aim at celebrity culture.

Some social media users are calling out celebrities who have not spoken out about the ongoing war in Gaza, and are blocking the stars in an attempt to undermine their revenue from brand partnerships.

The “blockout” trend was triggered by the May 6 Met Gala in New York City, a glamorous event that is held annually as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It struck some as a stark, dystopian contrast to the situation in Gaza. 

While images from the gala flooded social media, Israel began an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is crowded with Palestinians who were forced to flee there under Israeli orders.

Some social media users highlighted this contrast, and launched a campaign to block celebrities they felt have been ignorant of, or in some cases supportive of, the killing and displacement of Palestinians.

Boulou Ebanda de B’béri, communications professor and research director at the University of Ottawa, says social change comes from people speaking out against injustice, and it’s important for celebrities and others — including fellow professors — to use their platforms.

“They must speak out. This is the only way in which you bring back justice for everyone — for the Palestinian, for the Israeli. If you don’t speak out, you are just an accomplice.”

‘Let them eat cake’

A TikTok video posted on May 7 by influencer Haley Kalil became a rallying point for the blockout movement. In the video, Kalil, who has nearly 10 million followers, lip-synchs the words “let them eat cake” outside the Met Gala.

The phrase — attributed, likely falsely, to Marie Antoinette — has come to signify the disconnect between the elite and the working class.

Her video ironically used a clip from a song by the band Le Tigre, led by Kathleen Hanna, who has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and spoken out in support of Palestinians.

Kalil, also known as haleyybaylee, was criticized for making the video, amid news that northern Gaza was experiencing “full-blown famine.” She later apologized, saying the phrase was part of a trending audio clip on the platform. The apology video did not mention Gaza, Israel or the plight of the Palestinian people.

Ebanda de B’beri says the downside of a social media campaign is that the platforms can potentially suppress or censor certain voices, and there is “certainly going to be some kind of algorithmic discrimination.”

Human Rights Watch has documented what it calls “systemic censorship of Palestine content” by Meta, the company that runs Facebook and Instagram, a charge it has denied. TikTok has also denied accusations of censoring certain political views. 

Protests growing against Israel-Hamas war

The Gaza war began on Oct. 7, when a group of Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.

Israel’s subsequent ground invasion of Gaza has killed more than 35,000, according to Gaza health officials, and has left hospitals and other critical infrastructure in ruins. More than 80 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven out of their homes.

Western protests against Israel’s military actions have been growing in recent weeks, particularly driven by students, with encampments cropping up on post-secondary campuses across Canada and the United States.

Jordan Foster, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto who researches new media and inequality, says the “dystopian juxtaposition” of the Met Gala and the war in Gaza is a clever cultural critique.

“It suggests that young people are deeply disenchanted not just with the celebrity apparatus, but with inequality.”

How does blocking work?

Social media users see content from people they follow, as well as content chosen for them by algorithms. Users who block the accounts of celebrities and influencers will no longer see their posts.

Celebrities earn money partially based on the number of people who interact with content they create for brands. Blocking is meant to curtail their engagement numbers, and ultimately their revenue.

“The issue for celebrities, or those who are looking to monetize their content, is that the less exposure you command, the less engagement you can report, the less you are worth to any single brand,” Foster said.

Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Canadian Justin Bieber are among the dozens of celebrities named on block lists circulating online.

Social media platforms do not show how many people have blocked a particular account, but some celebrities are losing followers. NPR reported last weekend that Swift had lost about 300,000 followers on TikTok and 50,000 on Instagram in the past week, though the decreases cannot necessarily be attributed to the movement. 

Foster is skeptical, however, that the movement will significantly impact the targeted stars in the long run. 

“What’s going on right now, I think, will be a minor blow to some celebrity personas,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be so calamitous that long term, we’re not going to see endorsements pick up and brands return to some of these figures.”

Some celebrities speaking out

Not all celebrities have remained silent on the issue.

On May 6, the same day as the Met Gala, rapper Macklemore released Hind’s Hall, a song supporting pro-Palestinian student protests, one of the few celebrities to make a clear statement in support. 

Canadian singer The Weeknd has made substantial donations, directing $4.5 million US from his XO Humanitarian Fund to the UN World Food Programme for its humanitarian efforts in Gaza.   

And while most have stayed quiet since the blockout, singer Lizzo posted an Instagram video Monday. She thanked activists, and shared GoFundMe links to help people evacuate Gaza, saying she has donated and encouraging others to do the same. 

Criticism of blockouts

Some have criticized the blockout movement, calling it performative activism. Critics argue that focusing on celebrities detracts from news on the ground in Gaza. 

Foster says social media activism campaigns have gone awry this way in the past. He cites the example of “Blackout Tuesday,” when people posted black squares on their Instagram profiles in apparent solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, which he says ultimately suppressed important information.

He says it is also important to ask ourselves whether celebrities lending their voices to a political cause is useful, and whether those people are equipped to have those discussions. 

“Many celebrities are several degrees removed, both from the day-to-day reality of their audiences and certainly from recent political and economic shifts in our culture,” he said.

There is also a risk that celebrities may only engage with the cause in response to the backlash, he said, and not out of genuine concern.

“When that’s the case, what we ultimately see is a kind of flattening of the complexity of the issues that are up for debate at the moment.

“That, in effect, will trivialize some of these conversations.”