Someone makes NFTs out of photographs from the Xinjiang Victims Database

August 7, 2022

Someone makes NFTs out of photographs from the Xinjiang Victims Database

A 3D rendering of a man, standing in a T-pose and pictured from above his head. The rendering itself is shown on what appears to be a polaroid-style photograph inside a black plastic sleeve with stickers on it

Made in Uyghur NFT (blurring added by W3IGG) (attribution)

The Xinjiang Victims Database is a database that aims to collect records on ethnic minority citizens in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region who have been imprisoned in concentration camps as a part of the Uyghur genocide. According to the project, "The goal of this database consists in documenting the aforementioned individuals, so as to both protect them now and hold the Chinese authorities accountable later."

Someone apparently decided this was perfect material for an NFT project, which they named "Made In Uyghur". They took 100 images from the database, clumsily projected them onto 3D-rendered human models in a T-pose, and listed them for $25 apiece.

Upon becoming aware of the NFTs, the Xinjiang Victims Database updated their site licensing to CC BY-NC, a Creative Commons license that forbids commercial reuse. "Commercial use of the data, including images of victims, is not okay", they wrote on Twitter, "[Made In Uyghur] never contacted us about this".