Over the last week, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has again become a rallying point for global protests against police brutality. In the wake of George Floyd’s death, there have been passionate speeches, details of peaceful gatherings, and videos shedding light on shocking abuse of power by law enforcement going viral on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. But today, they’ve been mostly blacked out.
Scrolling through the #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM tags on Instagram now brings up a grid of black squares, from users participating in a social media event called #BlackoutTuesday. The trend was started by two black women working in the music industry – Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang. They set up a website, TheShowMustBePaused.com, and encouraged people in the industry to “take a beat” on June 2, and consider what they could do to support the black community.
“The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominately from Black Art,” says a statement on the website. “Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and success of Black people accountable.”
Musicians and companies quickly got on board. On Instagram, more than eight million posts have been tagged #BlackoutTuesday. Spotify has blacked out a number of playlists, replacing their usual title card with a black square and making them inaccessible for the day. TikTok removed playlists and campaigns from its sounds page. MTV will go silent for eight minutes – marking the length of time that police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.
Katy Perry and Rihanna were among those to show their support on the #BlackoutTuesday hashtag, while the Liverpool football team posted a photograph on social media showing its players taking a knee in the centre circle, a gesture that has been used by NFL player Colin Kaepernick and other athletes in the past to protest against police brutality.
Your own personal feed is, like mine, probably full of your friends, your favourite football team, and even that bakery you like posting black squares in solidarity with the protesters, and the black community.
But social media users seeking an easy way to show their support for protesters have inadvertently silenced one of their key avenues for spreading information. As well as #TheShowMustBePaused and #BlackoutTuesday, people are also posting their black squares with the #BlackLivesMatter tag.
A number of people on Twitter have pointed out that this has led to evidence of police brutality and tips on how to stay safe during protests or where to donate money have been replaced with what one decries as “performative bullshit that’s smothering voices”. Others still support the initiative, but are imploring people to remove the #blacklivesmatter tag from their posts. “If you search #BlackLivesMatter on Instagram now, you get... a bunch of white people and brands taking up space,” writes one person.
Information is power – and a black square with no context does nothing more than tick a box, especially if it’s clogging up a space that used to be an avenue of genuine protest. Far from drawing attention to issues of systemic racism and amplifying black voices, social media users have replaced them with a performance that brands and influencers are all taking part in. This is choreography, not change.
Wanting to post something is an understandable reaction. These myriad outrages layered on top of each other are visceral and horrible to watch, parcelled out in that modern way as social media vignettes. It makes sense to try and exercise a degree of control – to try and separate yourself and your carefully curated image from the people wielding batons and pepper spray, to send out a clear signal that you are not like them.
But #BlackoutTuesday only makes sense if you plan to actually engage with the problem as well – by reading something, or reaching out to a friend, or donating money to a worthy cause. Posting a black square on Instagram to punctuate your baby photos and pictures of banana bread isn’t helping anyone except yourself.
Amit Katwala is WIRED's culture editor. He tweets from @amitkatwala
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
