GAMESTOP has been heavily criticised for allowing an NFT on its storefront which is based on an image taken during 9/11.
The Falling Man is originally an image taken by Richard Drew at the site of the Twin Towers in New York, on September 11, 2001.
The Twin Towers during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
It features a man falling from one of the towers after it had been struck by a plane in a terrorist attack.
It is assumed that the man jumped from the building.
Many people caught in the attack did this knowing that there was no chance to survive the building’s destruction.
The NFT version sold by GameStop took Drew’s image and superimposed an astronaut over the top of the man’s body.
GameStop fired hundreds of employees this month after the company was struggling financially.
This included important figures such as the company’s chief financial officer.
CEO Matt Furlong sent a memo to employees stating that, “the company has to take bold steps as it invests in its digital future.”
One of these steps is rumoured to be the launch of its NFT marketplace.
Here GameStop is selling thousands of NFTs from creators in exchange for the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
The Falling Man NFT has since been removed and is no longer available for purchase.
However, before its removal, at least two copies of the NFT were sold for 0.65 Ethereum each, worth roughly $1000 (£800), of which GameStop reportedly takes a 2.25% cut.
While this image has been removed, the creator of the image is still part of the platform’s creator programme.
In fact, the album which contained the NFT, titled Astronauts, is also still available, featuring some images similar to the deleted one.
The creator uses AI to create the images rather than creating original artwork.
Other NFTs on their page have been removed due to DMCA takedown notices or other violations of the terms of service.
While they remain on GameStop’s NFT platform, their Twitter account no longer exists.
GameStop has not made a public statement about the removal, but according to a Reddit thread, it did reach out privately to a user who reported the image.
The statement reads,
“This NFT will be removed from our marketplace entirely.
“This user has already had their minting ability removed from their account, and we have already been in direct contact with the creator about these actions.
“We appreciate you letting us know about this issue.”
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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