Bored Ape Founder Responds to Rumors on Nazi Accusations
BAYC Co-Founder Responds to Nazi Accusations
The co-founder of Yuga Labs, Wylie Aronow, known as Gordon Goner, said that the company has become the target of a "crazy disinformation campaign" that was spreading "ridiculous conspiracy theories" over allegations of the collection being racist.
"We’ve become the target of a crazy disinformation campaign accusing us—a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani, and Cuban friends of being super-secret Nazis," Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner wrote in a blog post on Friday.
How Did the Rumor Come About?
Over the last month, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has faced a flurry of criticism from the US-based artist Ryder Ripps, a creative director who has been "investigat[ing] extensive connections between BAYC and subversive internet Nazi troll culture" since December.
Ripps, who created the website gordongoner.com, details his theories on why the BAYC is "racist" and "contains Nazi Dog Whistles,"
The accusations were resurrected this week after a YouTuber named Philion published an hour-long video called "BORED APE NAZI CLUB" which dives into Ripps' claims in detail, accusing the NFT collection of employing racist and Nazi imagery in their NFTs. The video now has nearly 890,000 views, at the time of writing.
Goner and Yuga Labs today dismissed both the video and Ripps' original blog post as an elaborate troll.
"Overall, we think it’s crazy these conspiracy theories have been able to proliferate. It really shows the power that a demented troll on the internet can have," Goner said.
