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Public figures have been under pressure for months to speak out against Israel’s offensive in Gaza. That pressure increased after last week’s Met Gala in New York, which took place as Israel was bombing Rafah, the last part of the Strip providing some kind of shelter for civilians. The hashtags: #celebrityblocklist, #letthemeatcake and #blockout. The theory: that blocking celebrities – even those you don’t follow – will hit them where it hurts, making brand deals less lucrative by reducing the celebrity’s reach. The result? Kim Kardashian lost 810,000 Instagram followers in the past month, according to the online analytics tool Social Blade (123,000 unfollowed her on Friday) although it’s unclear if that was linked to Gaza protests and in any case she’s unlikely to feel the impact. She has 363 million other followers on Instagram alone. Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, told NPR he can’t recall many occasions when this type of protest “has actually worked”. But it provides “some sense of agency” for the campaigners.
