Digitine: movement proposes the mass cancellation of celebrities. Understand

Recently, a trend called #Blockout2024 gained traction on TikTok, attracting attention by promoting the blocking of celebrities, including notorious figures like Kim Kardashian. This campaign, also known as Celebrity Blockparty, encourages users to block celebrities who refrain from speaking out on pressing political issues, such as conflicts in the Middle East.

The movement is part of a broader phenomenon known as “Digital Guillotine”, in which celebrity cancellations occur en masse. Using the hashtag, users seek to increase visibility and support for this cause, in a process that some call “Digital”, referring to collective and organized digital blocking, as a digital guillotine.

The beginning of the trend

On Wednesday, the user of TikTok anonymous blockout2024 released a 15-second video featuring footage of the Met Gala and journalistic coverage of the conflict in Gaza. He called on viewers to unfollow and start blocking celebrities on social media.

After that, several videos on the app, each reaching millions of views, emerged and have encouraged users to block celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Zendaya e Kim Kardashian, on various platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.

When we hate them, they make money. When we praise them, they make money. But when we block their social media accounts and completely forget their names, they lose everything.

User blockout2024 in a subsequent video

The message went viral and in two days it had more than 2 million views and more than 334 thousand likes on TikTok.

In an attempt to help the trend, the anonymous user silentcelebs8 shared a video in which he reveals a document on Google Docs listing all the celebrities who attended the Met Gala, marking those who have remained silent or who have used their platforms to discuss the conflict in Gaza.

In the video, he showed a long list of celebrity names, with some marked in red as “silent.”

Some of these celebrities haven't been completely silent. For example, Zendaya made a post in October on her story supporting Palestine, but has since remained silent, therefore I marked it as 'silent'.

User silentcelebs8

Celebrities like Cardi B, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé were also mentioned by several users as part of this lockdown movement.

But after all, why are these people being blocked?

The logic behind blocking celebrities on social media is to avoid traditional “cancellation”, which involves insults or controversial posts that can end up increasing engagement.

Users opted for blocking as a strategy to reduce the online influence of celebrities, thus reducing their reach and the visibility of their advertisements. This action, theoretically, causes the algorithms to interpret it as an effective “cancellation”.

The online movement also aims to create more awareness about important issues and push for more global action towards a ceasefire in Gaza.

The TikTok influencer, Haley Kalil, is also being criticized, accused of insensitive behavior. Kalil was hired by E! News as a pre-gala host, interviewing celebrities on the red carpet. In a video posted and then deleted, Kalil is seen outside the Met Gala, dressed in a flowery dress and lip-synching the words “let them eat cake”.

The phrase is often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, although there are no historical records of her actually saying it. However, the expression gained prominence in the film Marie Antoinette 2006, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst, where the queen is portrayed saying the phrase upon learning that the peasants had nothing to eat.

In the video, which was later removed from his account, Kalil used the sound bite to voice the famous queen.

Users on social media criticized the influencer for being “disconnected” and “insulting”, with some even suggesting that she be blocked on digital platforms; That's when the word came up “digitine”, digital guillotine (digital guillotine).

Days after the incident, Kalil posted a nearly nine-minute video on TikTok where he apologized for the situation and the lack of proper research before posting it. However, many of the comments on the apology video were vitriolic, with followers claiming to be “Watching from District 12,” an allusion to the universe of Hunger Games, highlighting the influencer’s disconnection with the reality of her followers.

She says she chose audio because it was trending at the time, without a “deeper meaning.”

I would never purposely choose a sound to highlight wealth disparity or elitism. I never thought I would be interpreted that way, because I wasn't elitist enough to even be invited to the Met Gala.

Haley Kalil, TikToker and host of the 2024 MET Gala

The Met Gala problem

The event, which has tickets costing approximately $75,000 each, is recognized as a landmark in the fashion world and serves as an annual source of fundraising for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Amid humanitarian crises in both the Middle East and Ukraine, this year's edition of the event drew criticism on social media. Many users pointed out the contrast between the luxury of the event and the global difficulties.

On Twitter, the ball was branded insensitive and compared to Suzanne Collins' dystopian novel, Hunger Games, where an elite dresses luxuriously while the majority of the population faces scarcity.

Impact of the “Celebrity Blockparty” trend

After the hashtag went viral Blockout2024, which is part of the campaign “Celebrity Blockparty”, Taylor Swift lost approximately 100.000 followers on TikTok, according to data from the website Social Blade, specialized in social media analysis. Although his followers dropped from 33,4 million to 33,3 million in just one night, this change does not have a significant impact.

Between April 27 and May 10, Swift had an average daily gain of 270.000 followers on TikTok, according to the Social Blade. On X (formerly known as Twitter), Swift remains one of the most followed personalities, ranking eighth with 95,3 million followers.

Losses of followers on this platform, between Wednesday and Friday, were minimal, totaling just over 6 thousand accounts.

According to the website, Kim Kardashian would have lost 3 million followers, but on TikTok, her follower base remains stable, remaining at 9,6 million.

On TikTok, some users have expressed disillusionment with their idols, criticizing them for not taking positions or using their influence to speak out about important issues such as violence in the Middle East, which is why they are joining the blockade movement.

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Sources: The national news, Billboard, Indy star

Text proofread by: Pedro Bomfim