The movement called blockout2024 calls on Internet users to unsubscribe from influencers’ social networks and to block the accounts of public figures who do not take a clear position in favor of the Palestinian cause. Born in the United States, these online boycott operations are arriving in France.
The key word blockout2024 appeared on May 6 in New York during the prestigious Met Gala. This event invites celebrities from cinema, music and the Web to come and parade on a red carpet in extravagant costumes. The objective of this annual meeting is to obtain donations in order to support the Costume Institute Met Gala which house the largest collection of historical outfits by fashion designers in the world.
But, by chance, demonstrators marched not far from the Met Gala to demand an end to the bombings on Gaza and the sending of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians. The riots of rhinestones and sequins at the Met Gala, broadcast live on social networks at the same time as the demonstrations, had the gift of exasperating Internet users. In particular, when they discovered the comments made by the model Haley “Baylee” in a video on TikTok.
The influencer, dressed in her Sunday best in a dress worthy of the Palace of Versailles, launched to the public the famous “quote”, which is falsely attributed to the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette : “ If they don’t have bread, let them eat brioche “. Comments which were unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but were immediately poorly received by Internet users.
The “digital guillotine” falls on the heads of celebrities
Internet users, who demand that these personalities parading at the Met Gala clearly position themselves in favor of the Palestinians, then created the #blockout2024 movement. He encourages Internet users to no longer follow the social networks of celebrities who are indifferent to the fate of Gazans. Starting from the United States, calls for a boycott eventually reached France. The Instagram page blockout2024 of France and those which were created on TikTok bring together around 50,000 subscribers. “ Blocking celebrities prevents algorithms from displaying their content in news feeds. This reduces their audience, and therefore their income. », Specify these social accounts managed by anonymous Internet users.
A list of more than 250 personalities to “block” is circulating online
Among the designated targets are, for example, the singer Zazie, the astronaut Thomas Pesquet or even athletes like Kylian Mbappé or Zinédine Zidane. The effectiveness of these calls for boycott remains quite moderate for the moment, estimates the Influence Marketing agency, Reech, which has approximately 5,000 fewer subscribers for comedian Jamel Debouzze, or 2,500 for host Cyril Hanouna. A drop in the ocean for these celebrities who claim millions of followers online. On the other hand, more than 50,000 Internet users have unsubscribed from footballer Antoine Griezmann.
However, some influencers on the blockout2024 list now post content in favor of Palestine. In particular, this photo shared more than 40 million times on Instagram which shows a camp for Gazan displaced people, whose tents, in the center of the image, form the phrase “ All Eyes On Rafah ”, that is to say “All eyes are on Rafah”. Generated by AI, the photo was created by a photographer in Malaysia, three days after the Israeli strike on a refugee camp in Gaza.
