A collective of artists in the music industry, including Mick Jagger and Peter Gabriel, are hoping to honor George Floyd with an effort titled "The Show Must Be Paused," a day for musicians (and their fans) to lean into the fight against police brutality and racial injustice on June 2. Despite the efforts of Black music executives Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, who co-created the initiative, activists are concerned the project might be used as a tool to suppress Black voices.

The execs originally called for folks to “take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the Black community.”

“The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominately from Black art,” says a statement about the initiative on TheShowMustBePaused.com. “Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and success of Black people accountable.”

The statement also said that a plan of action will be released as a result of the initiative. 

But what initially began as a timeout for the music industry is what activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham is calling "digital suppression" of Black voices.

At some point, things either became lost in translation or the initiative was intentionally co-opted. 

Social media users began participating in "Blackout Tuesday" and sharing a visual of an empty black square on Tuesday.  

Many folks believed they were showing solidarity with the protests taking place throughout the globe advocating for Black lives. But as the Verge pointed out, the use of the #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter hashtags in these posts has only flooded the hashtags' feeds with posts that suppress critical information, such as incidents of police violence and resources from activists and organizers, in such a vital time.

Additionally, encouraging silence, which was only supposed to take place throughout the music industry, is the opposite of what needs to be taking place as the president threatens to deploy the National Guard upon cities experiencing uprisings. 

Rapper Chuck Inglish and singer Kehlani were among the first to bring attention to how people are participating in the event.