How does blocking a celebrity affect them?
Besides (Haley) Kalil, other celebrities on the blocklists include Israeli actor and former soldier Gal Gadot, American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian, American actors Zendaya and Noah Schnapp; American singer Taylor Swift and British singer Harry Styles.
While there have been online movements in the past to unfollow some of the celebrities that are now being blocked, experts have said blocking is more effective as a protest strategy than unfollowing.
The effect of unfollowing on a celebrity’s overall audience and engagement metrics is minimal, Eddy Borges-Rey, an associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar told Al Jazeera. Borges-Rey’s research work examines social media and algorithms.
“Social media celebrities heavily rely on high visibility and engagement to attract and maintain advertising deals,” he said, adding that when someone unfollows a celebrity, they simply stop seeing the celebrity’s posts in their feed. The content can still indirectly show up through their search pages or algorithm-driven feeds such as the Instagram Explore page or the “For You” pages on TikTok and X.
Since even non-followers view the celebrity’s content if they have not blocked the celebrity, this does not significantly hurt the celebrity’s reach.
On the other hand, “if someone blocks the celebrity, they completely cut off all interaction with their content,” said Borges-Rey.
This decreases the celebrity’s audience size, leading social media algorithms to deprioritise their content. As more people block a celebrity, their posts become less visible across the platform, even to those users who have not blocked the celebrities.
“A reduction in visibility can lead advertisers to perceive the celebrity as less valuable, potentially cutting back on the amount they are willing to pay for ads on the celebrity’s profile, thereby directly affecting their ad revenue,” he added. READ MORE from Al Jazeera
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