GameStop 'pulls 9/11-inspired NFT' from its store after outrage

GameStop has been facing significant backlash for appearing to allow an NFT on its storefront based on an image captured during 9/11.

The image, known as Falling Man, was initially taken by Richard Drew at the Twin Towers site in New York City on September 11, 2001.

It shows a man falling from one of the towers after it had been struck by a plane during a terrorist attack.

It is presumed that the man had jumped from the building.

Many of the people caught up in the unfortunate attack did this, knowing that there was no chance of surviving the building’s destruction.

So, the NFT version that GameStop temporarily listed for sale took Drew’s photo and superimposed an astronaut on top of the man’s body instead.

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This month, GameStop fired hundreds of employees after the company was facing financial hardship.

This included people of prominence, such as the company’s chief financial officer.

CEO Matt Furlong also sent a memo to employees that stated that they had to “take bold steps as it invests in its digital future.”

One of those bold steps was rumored to be the launch of its NFT marketplace.

On that platform, GameStop sells thousands of NFTs from creators, all in exchange for the cryptocurrency Ethereum.

Now, the Falling Man NFT has since been removed from the platform and is no longer available to purchase.

But before its removal, at least two copies of the NFT were sold for 0.65 Ethereum each, which is around $1000 (£800).

GameStop reportedly would take a 2.25% cut of that amount.

Despite the image no longer being on the platform, the creator of the image is still part of the platform’s creator programme.

The album that contained the NFT, titled Astronauts, is also still available and features some images similar to the deleted one.

The image creator uses AI to create the photos rather than creating original bodies of artwork.

Additionally, other NFTs on the creator’s page has been removed due to DMCA takedown notices or other service violations.

While they are still on GameStop’s NFT platform, their Twitter account doesn’t exist anymore.

On Reddit, someone shared a screenshot image of Twitter DMs between what seemed to be the game company and a customer talking about the picture.

“This NFT will be removed from our marketplace entirely,” GameStop’s response read, according to the image.

The company also noted that there is a marketplace where people sell things like this which a seller approved despite GameStop not having anything to do with that.

“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,” they added.

GameStop has still not made a public statement about this removal.

Indy100 reached out to GameStop for comment.

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