Blackout Tuesday: What Is It? Why Are Sports and Entertainment People Signing Up?

Why the Social Media Outburst?

Celebrities, corporations, music labels and sports stars have vowed not to post on their accounts on what is being called Blackout Tuesday following the death of 

George Floyd.

Demonstrations have broken out across the US following the death of Mr Floyd and other allegations of police brutality against people of colour.

Amid a febrile atmosphere, police have clashed with protesters in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, while Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the country's military unless state authorities stop ongoing demonstrations.

What is Blackout Tuesday?

The idea is to fill Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with black squares, freeing up the time usually dedicated to social media for people to educate themselves on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Organisers said they wanted Tuesday to be "a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community" through "an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change".

The campaign hit a slight bump in the road early on Tuesday with many people using the hashtags dedicated to Black Lives Matter #BlackLivesMatter

This clogged up feeds meant for information related to protests around the world, which is something organisers were understood to be keen to avoid.

Why are celebrities posting black squares on Instagram?

George Floyd, a 46-year-old bouncer, was killed on Monday May 25 by Derek Chauvin, a police officer, who pressed his knee into Mr Floyd's neck until he died while other police officers watched. 

Footage of the killing, taken by a bystander, showed Floyd lying face down and handcuffed, groaning for help and repeatedly saying, "please, I can't breathe," before becoming motionless.

Chauvin, had his knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total and two minutes and 53 seconds after Mr Floyd was unresponsive, according to a criminal complaint released by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.

On June 1, a medical examiner in Minnesota classified Mr Floyd's death as a homicide. 

Mr Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the Floyd family, has now called for the Minneapolis police officers to face the more serious charge of first-degree murder, based on the new findings.

It has restored the Black Lives Matter movement at the forefront of the news agenda. 

Celebrities unite for Blackout Tuesday

A host of well-known celebrities have posted black squares on their social media accounts to their millions of followers.

 

  This ain’t a movie/ ain’t calling cut/ we cutting the throat of the old system/so if you ain’t with us/ then you better run. New breed.

What is Black Lives Matter?

The latest deaths have led to a resurgence in the "Black Lives Matter" movement, founded in 2013, initially as a social media hashtag before becoming a protest movement, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin, the previous year.

According to their website, the BLM mission is to "eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives."

TV, music labels and corporations join the movement

• On Tuesday morning,  Co-host Holly Willough  and Phillip Schofield have joined a "blackout" in protest against the death of George Floyd in the United States.

At 11am the ITV daytime show went dark, showing a black screen with the words "Black Lives Matter" in white lettering.