People are flooding social media with black squares for Blackout Tuesday, but critics say they could do more harm than good for the Black Lives Matter protests

• As people share black squares on their Instagram feeds to support the Blackout Tuesday movement and show solidarity amid nationwide police brutality protests, the posts are unintentionally hiding vital information and resources.
• By including the #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM hashtags, these posts are flooding hashtag pages with plain black squares in lieu of information on protests.
• Blackout Tuesday began as a "day of pause" within the music industry and evolved into the trend of blacking out a social media feed.

A social media movement encouraging people to post plain black squares on Instagram in an effort to elevate Black voices on the platform has unintentionally hidden those voices, as many people are including Black Lives Matter hashtags in their posts.

The #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter hashtag pages on Instagram have been used to disseminate information and resources about the nationwide police brutality protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. Thousands of users included those hashtags for Blackout Day, or Blackout Tuesday, on June 2, unintentionally flooding the hashtag pages with plain black images and hiding any vital resources for protesters.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged her Instagram followers not to use the BLM and Black Lives Matter hashtags with Blackout Tuesday posts.

"If you posted a blackout pic and used the hashtags blm, blacklivesmatter, etc DELETE THE POST and if you wish, reupload without the blm hashtags," she said. "Even if you edit out the tag from your original post I am told it could remain up on the original hashtags, which erases protest footage and crucial information. Play it safe and just delete & re-upload it entirely."

IMPORTANT - SHARE WIDELY If you posted a blackout pic and used the hashtags blm, blacklivesmatter, etc DELETE THE POST and if you wish, reupload without the blm hashtags Even if you edit out the tag from your original post I am told it could remain up on the original hashtags, which erases protest footage and crucial information. Play it safe and just delete & re-upload it entirely. If you must post a blackout pic use the hashtags #blackouttuesday, #theshowmustbepaused, etc which were originally made by Black women organizers in the music industry.

A post shared by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc) on Jun 2, 2020 at 7:27am PDTJun 2, 2020 at 7:27am PDT

The singer Kehlani shared a similar message on Twitter on Monday evening, writing "i don't like this" along with a screen recording by writer Anna Bediones that demonstrated the "dangerous" trend, as the hashtag pages showed an "overflow of black images, instead of other more useful content people could look at for information."

—Kehlani (@Kehlani) June 2, 2020

Anthony James Williams, a writer and sociology PhD candidate, said that this trend "is intentionally and unintentionally hiding critical information we are using on the ground and online."

—y’all don’t read the room (@anthoknees) June 2, 2020

In an Instagram story video, Lizzo asked followers to instead use the #BlackoutTuesday hashtag on such posts.

Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon with the same request, as Instagram feeds across the country continued to fill up with black squares for the Blackout. "The #blacklivesmatter hashtag aggregates important information and resources for the community," he said.

—Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) June 2, 2020

Blackout Tuesday originally began as a "day of pause" for the music industry to demonstrate that "the show can't just go on, as our people are being hunted and killed," as co-organizer of the initiative and former Atlantic Records employee Brianna Agyemang said on Instagram.

We are tired and can’t change things alone. This is a call to action for those of us who work in music/entertainment/show business to pause on Tuesday, June 2nd because the show can’t just go on as our people are being hunted and killed. Use this time on Tuesday to come together and figure out how we can hold our partners, colleagues and companies alike, accountable to come up with and execute a plan that actively supports and protects the VERY CULTURE that it profits from. #THESHOWMUSTBEPAUSED

A post shared by Bri Anna (@bri_anna) on May 29, 2020 at 5:16pm PDTMay 29, 2020 at 5:16pm PDT

Businesses have followed suit, with some closing stores in observence of the day. TikTok, which has also been a huge source of protest information and Black Lives Matter activism in the days since Floyd's death, said in a statement Tuesday that it is observing Blackout Tuesday "in solidarity with the Black community of artists, creators, and the music industry as a whole against the horrendous recurrence of injustice in the long fight against inequality, racism, and violence."

Other actions taken by some on social media, like sharing the video of George Floyd being pinned down by Minneapolis cops before he died in police custody, have been widely criticized for doing more harm than good.

Social media has become a source of activism, education, and communication amid the police brutality protests continuing throughout the US. There's been a huge push of encouragement for influencers and celebrities to voice support for the protests online, but as people rush to post on social media, they are often met with criticism.

• Read more:
• People keep sharing the video of George Floyd. Some activists and mental health professionals are calling it 'pain porn' and begging them to stop.
• People are urging influencers and celebrities to support Black Lives Matter online or stop posting entirely
• People are posting Minneapolis protest footage to TikTok and 'This Is America' has become their anthem
• Dallas Police asked people to report illegal protest activity via an app. K-pop stans organized to spam it with fancams instead.

Read the original article on Insider