Singapore fashion brand Beyond The Vines issues apology after backlash regarding remarks on Israel-Hamas war
The controversy first started when online users noticed that Beyond The Vines co-founder Daniel Chew was following a pro-Israeli Instagram page and intensified after Chew's wife and co-founder Rebecca Ting was seen occasionally laughing and smiling in an Instagram livestream while explaining Chew's actions.
Beyond The Vines founders Rebecca Ting (left) and Daniel Chew (right). (Photo: Instagram/danielgchew)
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The founders of local fashion label Beyond The Vines (BTV) have issued an apology, following backlash surrounding their founder's online comments in relation to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The controversy first started after online users noticed that co-founder Daniel Chew was following a pro-Israeli Instagram page, Fellowship Of Israel Related Ministries (FIRM). As fans of the brand sought clarification on Chew's stance on the war, a few claimed that BTV had deleted comments that were pro-Palestine on their page.
The controversy intensified a few days later, on Nov 10, when Chew's wife and BTV co-founder Rebecca Ting went on Instagram Live for a new product launch. During the first few minutes of the 45-minute-long livestream, Ting addressed Chew's actions – claiming that he initially followed FIRM's page as it posted lifestyle content and has since stopped following it after it pivoted to "political content".
In reference to allegations that comments were being deleted on BTV's posts, Ting said that BTV "had a chat with (Instagram operator) Meta" who told them that Meta "had a sensitive content filter that uses AI to filter out certain words and emoticons" which then leads to it "banning certain users".
Ting's Instagram Live ended up drawing the ire of many netizens who lambasted her use of the word "conflict" to describe the Israel-Hamas war and who took issue with her jovial attitude throughout the session, which saw her smiling and laughing multiple times as she addressed the allegations ahead of a product launch.
On Thursday (Nov 16), a joint apology from Chew and Ting was posted on BTV's Instagram page which stated that the couple was "sincerely sorry".
In their apology post, the couple said that they "do not condone the killings of thousands of innocent Palestinians", adding that they reflected "a lack of sensitivity to the gravity of the situation in Gaza".
Their apology has received a mixed response with some calling it "a template apology" while others have praised Chew and Ting for "taking a good first step".
Beyond The Vines was founded in 2015 and went on to become one of the most popular local brands here, with fans extending to Japan.
