Israeli Nas Daily loses over 300,000 followers after academy scam

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli Nad Daily’s primary Facebook page has been experiencing a massive drop in followers following a Nas Academy scam.

Nas Daily Academy had said that world-renowned traditional tattoo artist Whang-od will “reveal all the rituals, tools, and methods for making traditional tattoos.” Shortly after the academy’s announcement, Whang-od’s grandniece, Grace Palicas, said in a Facebook post on the public group “Tattoeed by Apo Whang-Od” that the academy’s announcement is a scam.

“My grandmother did not sign any contract with [Nas Daily] to do any academy. Some people are taking advantage of our culture. PLEASE HELP US STOP this disrespect to the legacy of Apo Whang-od and the Butbot Tribe”, Palicas wrote.

Grace is herself a tattoo artist, and was chosen by Whang-Od to pass on the art of traditional tattoo. In another post on her Facebook page, the younger artist expressed her worry at their traditions being exploited.

“I know you have good intentions of sharing our culture to the next generation. However our village concern is that some people are profiting and expointing [sic] our art and culture,” she said. The post has since been deleted, however.

104 years old awarded Whang-Od is recognized for keeping the ancient art of Kalinga tattooing alive as tattoos visitors using a hand-tapped method with thorns and charcoal.

In the period between August 4 and 6, about 306,900 users have unfollowed Nas Daily’s, according to the Facebook analytics tool CrowdTangle.

Things got worst for the Israeli influencer when The Cacao Project founder Louise Mabulo said that the content creator only cared about clickable content and that he had insulted farmers.

“He said no one wants to hear about farmers or farms, it’s not clickable viewable content. He didn’t care about making change or shedding light on real issues— he only wanted content, a good, easy story to tell that would get him more Filipino views,” Mabulo said.

Nas Daily was previously involved in other scams. Last May, East Jerusalem Hospitals Network warned of a Nas Daily fraud fundraiser, stressing that there has been no cooperation between any of the hospitals in the eastern part of Jerusalem and any party.

The network said that “unknown sides are using social media to fundraise for East Jerusalem hospitals, claiming that they are doing that in coordination with the network, which consists of the six hospitals of East Jerusalem; Makassed Islamic Charitable Society’s hospital, Augusta Victoria Hospital, Saint Joseph Hospital, St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, Red Crescent hospital, and Prince Basma hospital”.

The network stressed that no one has ever contacted nor coordinated any fundraiser with it or with the hospitals.

Last year, the BDS movement warned of Nas Daily’s efforts to promote normalization and normalize occupation.