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A TikTok motion asks fans to block prominent figures for their positions on the war between Israel and Hamas. All at the Met Gala.
By Elizabeth Patón
While protests against the Gaza war played out just a few blocks away, last week’s Met Gala was largely devoid of red-carpet political statements. That the organizers of fashion’s toughest annual exhibition (tickets cost $75,000 this year) pulled off this feat surprised many observers. Less than two weeks later, an online protest motion is taking shape. At least that’s on TikTok, the social media platform that sponsored the Met event.
Blockout 2024, also known as Operation Blockout or Celebrity Block Party, targets prominent figures who participants say are not their profiles and platforms for communicating about the Israel-Hamas war and broader humanitarian crises. Here’s what’s happened so far, what enthusiasts are hoping for. achieve and why it all started.
The complaint began on May 6, when Haley Kalil (@haleyybaylee on social media), an influencer who was an anchor for E!News before the event, posted a video on TikTok of her dressed in a sumptuous 18th-century-style floral dress and headdress. dressed in audio from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film “Marie Antoinette,” in which Kirsten Dunst proclaims, “Let them eat cake!”
The clip (which Kalil later apologized for and deleted) was widely viewed. of “The Hunger Games,” in which wealthy citizens dressed in opulent suits drink and dine while observing the suffering of sports-deprived neighborhoods.
Images of Zendaya, co-chair of the Met Gala, along with photographs of Palestinian children, have incited the masses online. Soon came a rallying cry from @ladyfromtheoutside, a TikTok author who found inspiration in Ms. Kalil’s Marie Antoinette parrot.
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