The celebrity block list of 2024: everything you need to know about the controversial movement

If you’ve been paying attention to the conversations going on on TikTok since the Met Gala, you might notice an interesting departure from the usual fare. The gist is that people are getting sick of celebrities, and they’re trying to downgrade their social power through a concerted effort of blocking their social media accounts.

It’s something that’s been happening for quite some time, and current events are simply speeding up the process. Remember the cringey “Imagine” moment during the first phase of the pandemic? That feels like the moment when the public opinion started to shift. Rather than uplifting celebrity lifestyles as aspirational, depressed fans started to resent the people for whom the pandemic felt like a minor setback. After all, it’s easier to quarantine in a beautiful Calabasas mansion than a 700-square-foot apartment.

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Fast forward to last week, when influencer Haley Kalil (aka Haleyy Baylee) went viral for using the “Let Them Eat Cake” sound—referencing Marie Antoinette, who also had the misfortune to be a rich, glamorous celebrity at a moment where people were fed up with it—at the Met Gala, and then appeared to backtrack after people called her out for insensitivity.

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While Baylee did release an apology video shortly afterward, it wasn’t well received. In the video, Baylee essentially tried to say she was “just like us” and hadn’t actually been paid for attending the Gala, stating that her friend made her dress and that she didn’t attend any afterparties.

But TikTokers were quick to call her out, posting previous clips of videos where Baylee stated that she had, in fact, been to a few afterparties.

But it’s not about whether someone did or did not attend Met Gala afterparties: it’s more about the fact that normal people—people working two jobs and still barely squeaking by, people threatened with the disappearence of an app that lets them connect with other people who share their struggles—are fed up with celebrity culture.

And thus, the great celebrity blocklist began. It began with Haleyy Baylee fans blocking the influencer, and then started to spread to other celebs who haven’t spoken out on the genocide in Palestine, or otherwise have spoken on it too late.

Celebrities are being held accountable by their fan bases, and the movement is growing.

If celebrities are going to do nothing but flaunt their wealth in peoples’ faces, we’re going to give them the “digitine.”

But just like everything else that happens online, it’s not exactly that simple. Some creators have recently spoken out about the failure of the blockout to prioritize nuance when it comes to platforming Black and brown creators, as well as Palestinian creators.

Some creators are noting that the blockout feels more performative than helpful, and it’s important for white creators to take in that criticism. Just like the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t helped by white people posting Black squares, the blocklist could end up distracting folks from the actual message.

Whatever happens with the block list, it’s interesting to see people start to have conversations about the roles celebrities and influencers play in our lives. Do we end up platforming them as a way to escape doing real activism? If we take away their power, will it create the change we actually want and need?

Only time will tell.

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