Content of article:
Good day everybody,
Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. Today we are going to take a look at a news story which has just recently come to my attention, regarding the group known as Anonymous, and the famous NFT collect known as Bored Apes Yacht Club.
Bored Apes Yacht Club is a famous NFT collection, created by Yuga Labs and released in 2021 with a live pre-sale on April 23 after first being minted on April 20. Those who are fortunate enough to own a Bored Ape NFT are granted access to a private online club, exclusive in-person events, and intellectual property rights for the image. As of 2022, the collection had managed to garner sales of over US $1 billion, making it one of the most profitable NFT collections ever made and a marker for any future endeavours into the space.
Who are Anonymous?
Anonymous originated in 2003 and is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various different cyberattacks against a variety of governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations, along with the Church of Scientology.
The message from Anonymous
The video, which was released on the YouTube and Twitter pages of @anonewsco which outlined that the BAYC collection has been accused of being involved with including racism, simianism, occultism, and even paedophilia within the NFT's. The video shows dozens of different images which highlight how the NFT's can be associated and even traceable to Nazi iconography, even though on first glance not many would see these images as immediately recognizable and belonging to that iconograph.
They went as far as calling out the collections creators, Yuga Labs, stating:
“As we navigate through the curated research that openly ties the artwork to these accusations, we can’t help but wonder why none of these accusations have actually been put to rest.”
The group also went on to state that they are awaiting a response from Yuga Labs regarding these accusations, and they have not yet come come across anything “labelled as unrefuted”.
“Anonymous wants to take the time to open a discussion about the BAYC collection…We don’t believe in half measures and want to be thorough with our investigation.”
The group went on to say it will not be an easy matter to solve, and may require months of investigations regarding the heinous accusations. They wish for a period of amnesty and further examination as the holders and fans of BAYC get to grips with the “hidden in plain sight” trolling Yuga Labs is accused of.
“BAYC collectors and enthusiasts, we feel empathy for what you may be going through right now. Even just allegations can be truly unsettling but the thought of even one of these allegations being true, must be intolerable to think of.”
Below is a link to the video as posted on the Twitter page.
Is this real or fake?
This is not the first time Yuga Labs has faced these accusations, and on June 24th 2022 they filed a lawsuit against multiple conceptual artists, including Ryder Ripps, Jeremy Cahen, and “Does 1-10” under the basis that their allegations included false designation of origin, false advertising, cybersquatting, and trademark infringement.
Yuga Labs has fully denies the allegations made against them earlier in the year, and even went as far as filling a lawsuit against conceptual artist Ryder Ripps back in June. This lawsuit was based on the fact he had created the RR/BAYC collection, which contained images that are seemingly identical to the original BAYC collection.
Ripps has since hit back claiming that the law suit against him is purely to keep him quiet regarding his claims that BAYC is linked to Nazism. He claimed that the BAYC collection is racist and went on to liken the BAYC logo to the Nazi Totenkopf emblem, while he also set up a website called gordongoner.com to detail the issues with BAYC.
Below is a Tweet from Ryder Ripps highlighting just how he believes the BAYC logo derivates from Natism.
As one would expect, the video has been met with much scientism, especially from BAYC holder. The community of BAYC has come forward to question whether the video is really from "Anonymous" and many are claiming the Twitter page which posted the video, along with the Instagram and YouTube pages which also posted it, are fakes. Somewhat impossible to verify, the Twitter page has over 7.9 million followes, meaning regardless of fake or not it has a wide reaching audience. Some of the BAYC community members have also gone as far as alleging that the video is from Ripps himself.
“From what I’ve seen, they don’t record camera angles from different views of the speaker,” tweeted Jay-Albert.eth. “He also sounds similar to Ryder and team to me. I think it’s fake.”
Does it matter? The hypothesis is now very much in a wide reaching audience that the similarities are there, but it is also plausible that is due to coincidence and it does not appear that Yuga Labs has ever exhibited actual neo-Nazi-like behaviour. At the same time, one can also argue that the company has exhibited anti-Semitic behaviour which may come across as related specifically to the soured relationship with Ripps, and his attempt to justify that animosity.
Below is a Tweet from @DaoKwonDo defending the BAYC collection and questioning the reliability of the page which posted the video.
We will not know anytime soon, if ever, the real reason for the similarities between the BAYC NFT collection and racism, simianism, occultism, and even paedophilia. All anyone can do is keep on the side of caution for now and see how this plays out. Will it impact the price? Potentially, as more accusations could damage the brand even further. At the same time it could also give even more publicity for Yuga Labs, as they say, no publicity is bad publicity.
I hope you enjoyed the read and have a wonderful day.
CryptoGod-1.
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