SINGAPORE — The display of glitz, glamour and grandiosity of the Met Gala last Monday (May 6) has inadvertently ruffled the feathers of a community of netizens online over the past week.

Graced by A-list celebrities, the Met Gala is widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious fashion event. But this year’s red carpet sparked heavy discourse on social media for different reasons.

In the midst of the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip, social media users are asking, how could a whole host of influential people turn a blind eye to its atrocities by partaking in such an extravaganza?

Social media users pointed out that some of these celebrities had never publicly addressed the continuing war in Gaza, the northern part of which is currently experiencing a “full-blown famine”, according to the head of the United Nations World Food Programme Cindy McCain.

Now, a new online movement has surfaced targeting celebrities who are seen as being insensitive or even supportive of the atrocities being committed in the Palestinian city.

It is being dubbed “Blockout 2024”. 

TODAY looks at what the movement hopes to achieve and whether or not it would have a tangible impact on the ongoing crisis.

WHAT IS THE BLOCKOUT?

Blockout 2024 is an online movement where social media users actively boycott famous celebrities and influencers by “blocking” their accounts on various platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X.

Their objective is to reduce the earnings these celebrities make through advertisements on social media. By doing so, they believe celebrities would be pressured to use their influence to try to stop the violence in Gaza.

In a video posted by the TikTok account “blockout2024” last Thursday, the user explained the rationale behind the movement.

“When you have millions of followers that look at your content every single day, you have an opportunity to make very important change in our world. 

“And to actively not do that… and selfishly promote your own products is kind of shallow.”

In a separate video posted on the same day, the user added: “We have full control over the incomes of news outlets, celebrities and artists. They make money off our hate, they make money off our praise. They do not make money when we block them and forget their names.”

The user has since posted several “blocks of the day” videos with the names of celebrities he feels should be blocked. At the time of publication, the account has around 176,600 followers on TikTok and over 4 million views on its most popular video.

WHY DID THE BLOCKOUT BLOW UP?

The popularity of the “blockout” was fuelled by angry reactions to a video posted by TikTok influencer Haley Kalil, who posted a video on the platform lip-syncing the words “let them eat cake” outside the Met Gala.

Those words are often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France during the French Revolution. They refer to leaders far removed from people's everyday struggles such that they would suggest that people eat cake when they do not even have bread.

Users have also drawn parallels with the movie The Hunger Games, where a group of lavishly rich elites in the capital live in stark contrast to people in other districts who live in poverty.

According to Ms Chloe Lim, an account director at integrated creative agency DSTNCT, the Met Gala was “especially triggering” to some people because the event’s “sheer visual spectacle” contrasted with images from news reports the day before on Israel’s attack on Rafah, a city in the south of Gaza.

“Due to social media, two global events which are seemingly completely unrelated now can be literally visually right on top of each other on our feeds,” Ms Lim said.

“Humans are visual creatures and the contrast is undeniable. It takes logic and rational thinking to “give benefit of the doubt” and disconnect the Met organisers and celebrities involved. But this ignores that emotional side of us as humans.” 

CURRENT AND POTENTIAL FUTURE IMPACT 

Last Saturday, US-based media outlet National Public Radio (NPR) reported that Taylor Swift had lost around 300,000 followers on TikTok and 50,000 followers on Instagram over the past week.

Singers Selena Gomez and Billie Eilish had also reportedly lost around 1 million and 1.1 million followers on Instagram respectively, according to Turkish public broadcaster TRT World. 

These blockings can certainly impact engagement and reach for those blocked and in turn impact ad revenue, according to Ms Charu Srivastava, the co-founder and chief strategy officer of strategic communications consultancy TriOn & Co.

“It also extends to boycotting their work beyond social media — for example, movies, music or appearances, which in turn also affects their earnings,” she said, adding that the impact extends to the brands associated with the blocked celebrities and influencers as well.

Indeed, there were previously calls to boycott fashion brand Zara back in December 2023 after it launched an ad campaign featuring statues wrapped in white, with many saying its images resembled photos of corpses in white shrouds in Gaza. 

Media intelligence firm CARMA said that the percentage of consumers who had negative sentiments towards Zara rose from 13.6 to 76.4 per cent following the incident. 

In terms of social media movements resulting in actual societal change, Ms Srivastava pointed to others which have sparked larger conversations and a “tangible impact” like the #MeToo movement.

#MeToo was a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse or harassment and rape culture, in which people talk publicly their experiences.

The movement spread across the globe and led to several sexual abusers being charged and sentenced.

There exists a sentiment, however, that the current blockout trend may be a form of “performative activism” — a type of activism that is done to increase one's social capital rather than because of one's devotion to a cause. 

Ms Lim of DSTNCT said the blockout may also draw comparisons to the Black Lives Matter movement where activists had called out “hypocrites” who posted plain black squares to stand in solidarity of the movement, but had done little in action to “really support black lives”.

On what actual impact the blockout would have on the war in Gaza, one expert told US media outlet NPR that advocates of the movement hope it would force governments to do something to end the violence.

"But as rational as that logic may seem, I don't think there are very many examples where this has actually worked,” said assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan Marcus Collins.

However, he added, the movement does provide social media users with “some sense of agency”.

“(It gives them) a sense that 'I've done something to influence other people to do something that perhaps might make a difference'. Because in the minds of those folks, it's better than doing nothing."