Blackout Day refers to various social media-promoted events and activist campaigns focused on anti-black racism. These events typically last 24 hours on social media platforms. Black Lives Matter activists on social media often encourage supporters to engage in protests and symbolic gestures. In the past, this included urging supporters to either refrain from spending money or exclusively support Black-owned businesses, during a Blackout Day.

The primary purpose of Blackout Day is to raise awareness of police brutality and racism towards Black people. Another common element on social media is the sharing of content that has been created by, and featuring Black creators of any nationality. Specific hashtags, such as #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay, are used to connect users and increase the visibility of related content. Blackout Day is generally considered to have emerged on March 6, 2015.^[1] Since December 21, 2015, and starting March 6, 2016, it has typically been held on the sixth day of every third month.^[2]

In 2020, Blackout Day received widespread attention on social media, predominantly as a result of the murder of George Floyd. However, the shooting of Breonna Taylor, the death of Elijah McClain, the shooting of Tony McDade, and other victims of police brutality have also been cited as inciting events.^[3] In June 2020, Blackout Day gained further recognition, with many users of platforms like Meta's Instagram and Snapchat posting photos of black screens and related Blackout Day hashtags to acknowledge these murders and express their views on police training reforms in Western countries. Since then, the term Blackout Day has seen various uses beyond its initial intent.

The event was initially conceived in early February 2015 by Tumblr user T'von Green.^[4] Green observed a lack of Black representation on social media and a prevalence of Eurocentric standards of beauty, particularly on Tumblr.

"Damn, I'm not seeing enough Black people on my dash. Of course I see a constant amount of Black celebrities but what about the regular people? Where is their shine?"^[2][4]

He noted that when Black people were depicted, it was often in a negative light.^[5] Research indicates that negative portrayals of Black people in the media can adversely affect the self-perception of members within the Black community.^[6] These harmful images are not only seen by the Black community but by anyone with access to media outlets. Although images of Black people have increased in mass media, these images have been disproportionately harmful due to their violent and crime-related content.^[7] Generally, if Black people are not depicted as criminals, they are represented as entertainers such as athletes or musicians.^[7] These polarized identities of lawless individuals and highly adored stars leave a spectrum of people in the Black community unrepresented. While associating Black people with athleticism is not inherently harmful, it becomes detrimental when it is the only association made. This highlighted the need for positive and relatable images of the Black community on social media platforms.

Concerned about these issues, Green sought feedback on his idea via Tumblr. Through these interactions, he met Marissa Sebastian—who created the movement's name and later became its PR and CEO—and Tumblr user V. Matthew-King Yarde (known as Nukrik on social media), who created the event's various logos.^[8][9][10]

Blackout Day was created as a 24-hour event to expose the online Black community and others on social media to positive images of everyday Black individuals through selfies, videos, gifs, and other media. Its goal was to positively highlight Black individuals and combat stereotypes. The idea quickly spread once it had a name and gained supporters within the Black Tumblr community. An official website was created^[11] to provide the online Black community with up-to-date information on when and how the event would take place. Before the event, the creators posted guidelines on who could participate and how to do so.^{[12][citation needed]}

After the initial event, the creators decided to make it a monthly event on the first Friday of every month. However, the frequency was an issue for many supporters, who believed the event would not have a significant impact if it occurred too often. They suggested that it should be a yearly event on the day it was first launched. This was an issue for the creators, as well as other supporters, who thought the frequency should be increased.^{[8][citation needed]} They changed it to a seasonally themed event that would occur on the 21st of September and December until January 2016, when it would be changed to fall on the 6th of every third month.^{[2][citation needed]} Each Blackout Day would be themed around Black heritage, and or history, and participants are encouraged to post content surrounding the given theme.^{[2][citation needed]}

The guidelines for Blackout Day are:^[2]

• If you are Black, either from Africa or from within the African diaspora, mixed (or part) Black, post a picture of yourself for others to view and re-blog/re-tweet/re-post
• Tag or mention #Blackoutday or #TheBlackout
• Scroll through the tag and re-blog, re-tweet, or re-post photos within that tag to support others
• People who are not Black/non-Black, or White, can re-blog posts in the tags to show support
• Support people with low numbers of likes and re-blogs as well

Official hashtags used are #TheBlackout and #BlackoutDay.

According to Twitter analytic service Topsy, the hashtag #BlackOutDay was one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter in the United States, with over 58,000 tweets by noon,^[13] and was a trending topic on Facebook. The creators garnered national attention for their digital activism,^[14] and used this attention to initiate dialogue about race and the portrayal of Black people in the media, both online and offline.

Outside of social media, they seek to continue these dialogues through partnerships, including a collaboration with Book Riot to sponsor 22 Black readers and writers.^[15] However, the event faced opposition, with hashtags such as #Whiteout being created as a public objection against the movement. The principle was the same as Blackout but featured selfies of White people. The creators addressed this issue by reiterating their movement's goal.^[10]

Other minority groups have attempted to mimic the movement by creating variations similar to the original #Blackoutday, such as #Yellowoutday and #Brownoutday, although with limited success. The creators suggested that they be more original and create tags that were more distinguishable from theirs.^[10]