SOLIDARITY

Blackout’s Black Boxes Take Over, Silence Streaming Services, Social Media in Support of George Floyd Protests

Apple Music, ViacomCBS, and Spotify are adding moments of silence and promoting black artists to support protests over the killing of George Floyd and police brutality.

Streaming platforms, music labels, and social-media users across the U.S. are pressing pause on sharing content Tuesday as part of the Blackout Tuesday protest called to confront police violence and racism. Apple Music has canceled all Beats 1 radio programming for the day, while Spotify has added an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence to some playlists and podcasts in honor of George Floyd—who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for that amount of time. ViacomCBS also participated with an 8 minute and 46 second blackout across its stations Monday evening.

The blackout began with the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused. In addition to the moment of silence and programming and social media blackouts, streaming services have also committed to promoting the work of black artists.

Individuals have also shown their support for Blackout Tuesday by posting pictures of black boxes to Instagram and using the #BLM hashtag. However, there is concern that these blacked-out pictures are preventing information about Floyd protests from being shared, and supporters have asked people to avoid those hashtags.