‘Profiting off suffering’: AP cancels sale of migrant boat NFT amid backlash

The Associated Press has withdrawn plans to sell a video "of migrants drifting in an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean" as an NFT after facing a backlash online.

The news outlet's Thursday tweet advertising the clip, which came as Russia's invasion raised fears of widespread displacement of Ukrainians, provoked accusations that the AP was seeking to profit off of suffering.

"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," wrote the behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno on Twitter.

"This is so far beyond the bounds of appropriate," wrote John Stanton, editor of the New Orleans news outlet Gambit.

"How did this get all the way to execute without a single journo saying something," asked another journalist, SI Rosenbaum.

The organization has deleted the tweet and canceled the planned sale. "This was a poor choice of imagery for an NFT. It has not and will not be put up for auction. The tweet promoting it was also deleted," said Lauren Easton, the global director of media relations and corporate communications at the Associated Press.

"AP's NFT marketplace is a very early pilot program, and we are immediately reviewing our efforts. As a not-for-profit, AP's mission is to inform the world with accurate, unbiased journalism."