The Brief: Many social media accounts run by white people and non-Black People Of Color are participating in a week-long "muted" challenge to amplify the voices of Black creators, using the hashtags #AmplifyMelanatedVoices and #MuteTheWhiteNoise.

DEEP DIVE
The #AmplifyMelanatedVoices challenge started on Instagram, organized by Alishia McCullough (@blackandembodied) and Jessica Wilson (@jessicawilson.msrd). This social media campaign calls for non-Black social media users to refrain from posting their own content for the week of June 1st-7th and to share content from Black creators and creators of color instead. The challenge also urges people to mute white content creators and to think critically about how their own social media usage may center around white people.
The muted social media challenge started on Instagram and has since spread to TikTok and Twitter as well. At the time of writing, over 4,000 Instagram posts have been tagged with the hashtag #AmplifyMelanatedVoices. This movement began one week after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Since then, protests and uprisings have erupted across the United States to demand justice for George Floyd and calling for an end to police violence.
As social media users react to these current events with signs of solidarity and calls for justice, the #AmplifyMelanatedVoices movement gives space for white creators to step out of the spotlight, amplifying the voices of Black creators and highlighting some of the racial bias that is prevalent on social media. In addition to refraining from posting their usual content for the week, participants in this challenge are sharing accounts and resources for their followers to fill their feeds with information from Black creators and activists and to donate funds to organizations focusing on racial justice.
Bloggers, influencers, companies, and individuals are participating in this online campaign to uplift the voices of Black creators and to support the Black Lives Matter Movement. Similar to the #ImBlack movement on TikTok, #AmplifyMelanatedVoices seeks to disrupt the usual flow of social media feeds to create space for Black creators and other creators of color to be heard. It also highlights the ways in which social media censorship and algorithms often sideline content from people of color.