‘This guy leads the CCP’s effort to spy on your kids and feed them information. Every Met attendee and co-chair should be asked if they’re okay with that.’
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has condemned fashion magazine Vogue’s decision to name TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to serve as an honorary chair at this year’s Met Gala event in New York City in May.
“Disturbing the Met Gala would allow TikTok’s CEO to be an ‘honorary’ chair,” Mr. Scott said on X on Feb. 15.
Disturbing the Met Gala would allow TikTok’s CEO to be an “honorary” chair.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) February 16, 2024
This guy leads the CCP’s effort to spy on your kids and feed them information. Every Met attendee and co-chair should be asked if they’re okay with that.https://t.co/AhcMMOhhYL
Vogue Magazine announced on Feb. 15 that Anna Wintour, Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Chris Hemsworth will be hosts of the 2024 Met Gala. Mr. Chew and Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson will be honorary chairs of the fashion event.
The Met Gala is a major annual fundraising fashion event held in support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Attendees include celebrities, well-known business figures, and politicians.
The announcement comes at a time when TikTok faces intensified scrutiny from lawmakers over its questionable business operations.
Last year, Mr. Chew testified before Congress over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and privacy concerns. Earlier this month, Mr. Chew again appeared at a congressional hearing about the potential harm of the short video-sharing app to children and other controversial content on the platform.
“This guy leads the CCP’s effort to spy on your kids and feed them information. Every Met attendee and co-chair should be asked if they’re okay with that,” Mr. Scott said.
TikTok is owned by a China-based company ByteDance. As of March 2023, 150 million active American users were using the app.
Banned From Multiple Countries
Mr. Scott and GOP senators introduced legislation to ban federal employees from using TikTok on government devices in March 2020. The Senate unanimously approved the bill in August 2020. Last year, the Biden administration ordered TikTok to be deleted from all government devices to ensure the safety of U.S. data.
Countries worldwide have also imposed similar bans on the China-backed app over national security concerns and its harmful content to children. Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, the UK, and several U.S. states have already ordered such bans.
By Aaron Pan
