The cause of this storm is the annual event of the American fashion industry, the Met Gala. This is a fashion event hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, if the Oscars are the top of the American film and television industry, then the Met Gala is the top of the American fashion circle. The highlight of this event, like the Oscars, is the red carpet for celebrities from all walks of life to attend. However, unlike Oscar attendees, who need to bring their works to attend, the red carpet of the Met Gala mainly relies on exaggerated looks to attract attention. And this year, the overturn of the Met Gala was also overturned on the fancy costumes of the guests at the scene.
The reason for this is that this year's Met Gala coincided with the "solidarity camp" action of American college students in support of Gaza. And on the red carpet of this Met Gala, a well-known "Internet celebrity" Haley Kalil (Haley Kalil) chose the theme of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France. In order to increase exposure, before walking the red carpet, Hailey Carlier also posted a TikTok video, wearing a gorgeous and exaggerated costume, saying to the audience the classic quote of Queen Mary: "Let them eat cake."
As soon as this video came out, Hailey and Met Gala were immediately criticized by a large number of TikTok users. The reason is very simple, the famous phrase "let them eat cake", the nature of the scene and the sentence in Chinese history "Why not eat minced meat?" "It's the same, they are all the exploiters of Zhumen's wine and meat, and they don't understand the suffering of the hungry people at all. On TikTok, the video of Hailey, an Internet celebrity who dressed up and asked "why not eat minced meat", was edited and choreographed with the old and weak women and children exposed on the streets of Gaza, and the video of police beating and dragging students on American campuses. The stark visual contrast immediately exploded the field of public opinion in Europe and the United States. A large number of TikTok users are angry at the hypocrisy of the American entertainment and fashion circles, which usually talk about "political correctness" and do not say a word in the face of the tragic situation in Gaza. Driven by this anger, TikTok users spontaneously set off a "ban" campaign, calling on people to stop paying attention to the accounts of so-called "celebrities" and refusing to let those irresponsible celebrities continue to eat "traffic dividends".
Seeing that things were getting bigger and bigger, the Met Gala official stood up as soon as possible and announced that it would cut off Hayley, who was dressed as Queen Mary, but it did not calm the anger of public opinion.
At present, this "clearance" activity called "2024 Block Out" is affecting more and more celebrities in the American entertainment industry, including Justin Bieber, who once pointed to the deer as a horse on social media and described the pictures of the tragic casualties in Gaza as Israel's current situation, in order to help Israel stand on the platform; and Taylor Swift, who has publicly expressed a desire to exert "political influence" and speak out on social issues, but has not said a word on Gaza, among others.
Now, from the "Solidarity Camp" operation to the "2024 Block Out", it is not difficult to see that TikTok is becoming the main front for ordinary Americans to break the cultural hegemony of political elites. Although one or two actions cannot shake the of American elite rule, as long as the tide of resistance does not stop, one day it will be able to break the dam.
It's just that from this point of view, every time there is a storm of public opinion on TikTok, there is one more "crime" against the American political elite, and it is no wonder that the Biden administration is so disrespectful and in a hurry to block TikTok.