People Are Trying To Cancel Celebs By Blocking Them. Will That Actually Do Anything?

Is 2024 the year we finally come to our senses about celebrity worship culture?

That’s the question on many people’s minds as the #blockout2024 trend continues to grow online. The TikTok-led social movement, also (somewhat more dramatically) called the “digital guillotine,” has people unfollowing or blocking celebrities who they feel have not been supportive enough of Palestinians as the war in Gaza continues and an estimated 35,000 Palestinians have died.

The mass blocking began earlier this month, shortly after celebrities and socialites attended the Met Gala, a yearly costume ball to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, where individual tickets go for $75,000.

“It’s time for the people to conduct what I want to call a digital guillotine — a ‘digitine,’ if you will,” TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside said in a May 8 video that’s gotten more than 2 million views.

“It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need,” she told viewers.

Another posted a montage of Zendaya, one of this year’s Met Gala co-chairs, alongside videos of Palestinian children crying in front of the rubble of destroyed homes in Gaza and other war zones.

Some participating in the trend say they’re just fed up with the worshipful nature of modern fandom when wealth inequality is so stark.

“I’m not blocking celebrities, because I think they are going to save the world,” artist Spencer Katherine wrote on Threads. “I’m blocking them, because I’m so tired of idolizing celebrity-culture and witnessing extreme wealth out of touch from reality. This is the free market.”

The idea is to block celebrities so that a lack of social media engagement affects their lucrative brand deal. If you simply unfollow a celebrity, the algorithm still might suggest a sponsored post of a brand they work with; blocking prevents such posts from appearing on your feed.

The trend seems to be working, at least in terms of drawing attention to itself. Last week, Google said that searches for the term, “celebrity boycott,” “digitine” and “let them eat cake” have all spiked.

Needless to say, it was a bad time for Mark Zuckerberg to post something like this: