TikTok CEO Shou Chew served as honorary chair of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Benefit in New York City as the future of the Chinese-owned social media app is uncertain.
Chew, who’s been grilled on Capitol Hill over concerns about the Chinese Communist Party having access to data of the app’s 170 million U.S. users, was selected as the Met Gala’s honorary chair by Anna Wintour, the New York Times reported.
The global editorial director of Condé Nast and the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Wintour is reportedly under fire internally about partnering with TikTok, which is believed to have poured millions into the Met Gala as the event’s chief sponsor this year, according to Page Six.
The sponsorship was reportedly agreed upon before President Biden last month signed legislation requiring TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to an approved buyer within a year or to shut down.
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Co-chairs for the 2024 Met Gala were Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth and Wintour herself. The theme was "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion."
Chew was honorary chair, as was Jonathan Anderson, creative director of the luxury fashion brand Loewe, which was also a sponsor of the event. According to the Times, TikTok declined to reveal its financial contribution to the 2024 Met Gala, but sponsors in previous years have been known to contribute about $5 million. Last year’s Met Gala raised about $22 million for the Costume Institute.
Other tech leaders have served as honorary chairs at the Met Gala in years past. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was co-chair in 2012, and Apple was a Met Gala sponsor in 2016 when its chief executive Tim Cook was honorary chair. Instagram also helped fund the event in 2022, the Times reported.
Chew’s recognition at the Met Gala comes, by contrast, amid serious national security concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers about TikTok.
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In a TikTok video shared after Biden signed the legislation threatening a potential TikTok ban, Chew vowed that "we aren’t going anywhere."
Biden's signing sets a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale – one day before his term is set to expire – but he could extend the deadline by three months if he determines ByteDance is making progress.
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According to Page Six, several celebrities who attended the 2024 Met Gala also have connections to Universal Music Group, which had been in a three-month-long spat with TikTok over concerns about "appropriate compensation for our artists and songwriters, protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users."
The Associated Press reported last week that the two parties reached a new licensing agreement and music from several artists represented by Universal, including Drake, Adele, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, would return to TikTok.
Reuters contributed to this report.
