Black Profile Pictures Are Taking Over Facebook — What Do They Mean?

Although it's no longer as dominant as it once was, Facebook remains one of the best ways for people to connect to one another. Of course, that doesn't mean that everything that happens on Facebook makes sense, especially when a trend seems to emerge from out of nowhere.

If you've noticed that some users on the platform have profile pictures that are just black squares, you may be wondering exactly what those profile pictures mean. Here's what we know about the profile pictures and what they symbolize.

Right now, the profile pictures appear to be a response to the 2024 election results. Following the news that Donald Trump had been elected to a second term, many changed their profile pictures to black in a gesture of mourning for the country. Whatever your political beliefs, it's clear that the results were disheartening for many.

Some black profile pictures are a remnant of a 2018 campaign that was meant to raise awareness about domestic violence. The campaign started in 2018 and was meant to offer a glimpse at what the world would look like if women completely vanished from it. The black profile pictures were meant to represent absence, and as they stacked up, men could see all the women who had shaped their lives.

"It's a movement to show what the world might be like without women," a note explaining the campaign that was posted on X (formerly Twitter) said. "Your profile photo should just be a black square so that men wonder where the women are. Pass it only to women ... it's for a project against domestic abuse."

Some women chose not to participate in the trend at the time, pointing out that women had already had their voices silenced enough.

These kind of social media black outs happen with some frequency, though, and they are typically associated with some sort of social justice movement. In 2020, some people made their profile pictures black squares during the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd. In that instance, the black profile pictures were meant to show solidarity with those protesting and those whose lives had been affected.

While black profile pictures often symbolize some cause related to social justice, there are also times when it is meant as an act of rebellion against social media itself. Having a black profile picture almost suggests that you don't actually care about how you appear online. You're not spending hours on the perfect profile picture, and have instead decided that it should just be a void.

Of course, it could also just mean that you were too lazy to look for a photo that would work as your image. It's also worth noting, though, that the black profile picture can mean so many things now that it almost feels meaningless to have it at all.

Social media activism can help you feel like you're doing something constructive, but it's often an easy out if what you really care about is making change in the world. A black profile picture is confusing, and evidently no longer has one clear meaning. If you encounter one in the wild, you shouldn't feel embarrassed that you don't know what it means.