Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an activist and co-host of Pod Save The People, said in an Instagram video Tuesday morning that she couldn’t trace where the idea to use blacked-out images to represent the music industry initiative originated.

“My belief is that #TheShowMustBePaused, which was for the music industry only, got misunderstood or coopted to create digital protest suppression,” her post’s caption read. “IF YOU ARE BLACK, WE HAVE BEEN SILENCED FOR LONG ENOUGH. POST YOUR CONTENT, EVEN IF YOU STILL POST YOUR BLACKED OUT PICTURE. THE GOOD, THE JOYFUL, ORGANIZING INFORMATION-ALL OF THE FULLNESS OF BLACK LIFE."

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I have asked multiple organizers around the country who’ve been doing this for a long time and NO ONE knows anything about #BlackoutTuesday. NONE of us organized this. If I am wrong, I will pull this post down and correct it! My belief is that #TheShowMustBePaused, which was for the MUSIC industry only, got misunderstood OR coopted to create digital protest suppression. IF YOU ARE BLACK, WE HAVE BEEN SILENCED FOR LONG ENOUGH. POST YOUR CONTENT, EVEN IF YOU STILL POST YOUR BLACKED OUT PICTURE. THE GOOD, THE JOYFUL, ORGANIZING INFORMATION-ALL OF THE FULLNESS OF BLACK LIFE. My next post will include ways NON-BLACK people can #AmplifyMelinatedVoices and trick the algorithm to make sure BLACK voices-which need to be heard MOST-are heard. ❤️✊????

A post shared by brittany packnett cunningham (@mspackyetti) on Jun 2, 2020 at 7:31am PDT

Cunningham said she was fearful that the message Agyemang and Thomas are hoping to use to inspire change might be misappropriated for other means.

"We saw this kind of digital suppression in the election space," she said. "We saw it in 2016. We saw it in 2018 with false information being sent out to our communities and stopping people from saying and doing the things that matter the most."

Cunningham said the music execs who created the initiative did so as a way for non-Black people to stop posting their regular content and uplift Black art for a week.

"Do not use the hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter," she said in reference to Tuesday's event. "Because what it does is when you click on the hashtag, everything in there is black. So suddenly, all the content, all of the art, all of the education, all of the announcement of protests and events, all of those are suddenly buried, which, again, makes it feels like someone is doing this on purpose."

Brianna-Agyemang

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