After receiving backlash, AP cancels sale of migrant boat NFT

After facing massive backlash online, the Associated Press has cancelled its plans to sell a video showing "migrants drifting in an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean” as an NFT. 

On Thursday, the news agency made a tweet in an attempt to advertise the clip. As it came amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the agency was accused of seeking profit off people's suffering. 

AP has now deleted the tweet and cancelled the planned sale. However, it had earlier mentioned that the video would be available the next day through its new marketplace selling NFTs.

Behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, on her Twitter handle wrote, "The Associated Press has deleted a tweet advertising an NFT that sure looked a whole lot like an attempt to make money off the plight of desperate migrants."

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Last month, the news agency announced that it will be starting its NFT marketplace. AP announced that the online marketplace would be a spot where users can “purchase the news agency’s award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism”, including images of “space, climate [and] war”.

As per a press release, “For 175 years AP’s journalists have recorded the world’s biggest stories, including through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today."

It further stated that the buyers will receive “a rich set of original metadata offering collectors awareness of the time, date, location, equipment and technical settings used for the shot”.

(With inputs from agencies)