Long Live the world #blockout2024 Campaign!!!
A "digital guerrilla" movement called #Blockout2024 (Boycott or Blockade) is underway. It is a movement of repudiation of big brands, multinationals, Hollywood artists and celebrities. This movement began on May 6, 2024 when the Gala of the Met event provoked a massive popular repudiation of the attitude of the celebrities who flocked to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, wrapped in jewels and finery.
A wave of outrage swept among the youth, and the hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists protesting just a few miles away as Israeli airstrikes targeted Rafah earlier that night, killing vulnerable and defenseless Palestinians. One of the events that aroused the most outrage was the video of influencer Hayley "Baylee" Kalil who appears in an extravagant costume and posted a video of herself at a Met Gala saying the phrase "Let them eat cake", imitating the words of Marie Antoinette in the French Revolution.
The extravagant spending and corruption of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette within their powerful court were the expression of a heartless elite, indifferent to the sufferings of the poverty-stricken people. That's when a TikTok user, named "Rae" (@ladyfromtheoutside) launched the "digital guillotine" or "digitine" movement and asking TikTok users to start by unfollowing celebrity Baylee in particular, and all celebrities in general.
The reference to the "guillotine" points to Baylee's use of Marie Antoinette's infamous quote, as both Louis XVI and the queen were executed by guillotine after the revolution prevailed. "We gave them their platforms. It's time to take it back, take away our views, our likes, our comments, our money," Rae said in a video that garnered more than two million views.
In the wake of these events, a digital movement took flight. Titled "Celebrity Lockdown 2024" and "Digital" or "Digitine," the movement is a protest against celebrity culture: specifically, it blocks influencers who have yet to use their power or privilege to take a stand on the humanitarian crisis that has devastated millions of people.
Hashtags ranging from #celebrityblocklist, #letthemeatcake and #blockout2024 are being used to galvanize people into the online boycott, which targets some of the world's most recognizable faces, from the Kardashians to Zendaya to Taylor Swift. On social media, including TikTok and X, people are posting celebrity lists to unfollow or block en masse, on the basis that these public figures are out of touch and don't use their immense, vast platforms to support social justice or civil liberties causes.
TikTokers have explained that the movement is all about the overwhelming silence of public figures, celebrities acknowledging their reach, and people redirecting their money and attention away from these faces. Media outlets have explained that the digital revolt is even more shocking because people are not only removing celebrities from their feeds, but blocking them, thus removing their monetary gains from ads.
The young people who are driving the movement speak of "Revolution," and the movement continues to grow, expressing the process of radicalization that the youth of the United States are experiencing. The 3rd Intifada unites the struggle of the Palestinian people from Gaza, through all the cities of the Middle East, the U.S. Universities and the Palestinians. It has spread to the US and Europe, now flooding social networks. Otherparticipants in the movement have also pointed out that disillusionment with celebrities in the midst of global crises is nothing new, and that the pro-Palestine movement is being driven and expressed largely by the people, those on the ground, working to bring about change.
This shows that the workers and people of the U.S. are the epicenter of the world revolutionary process that has given rise to movements that went global like "Occupy Wall Street," "Me Too," "Black Lives Matter," the statue removal movement, the movement for Palestine, etc., and now the #blockout2024, which are on their way to becoming new movements that are part of the struggle against capitalism. and for Global Socialism
Leave Your Message
Let's raise our voices
Statement by the International Secretariat