Gaza Cinderella, the image which ISIS stole is up for auction as an NFT. Its creator Brian McCarty is offering it to support War Toys.
The sale of the image as an NFT will help fundraise for the War Toys nonprofit organization. The auction is on Foundation and will end today.Â
Back in 2012, Brian McCarty shot the original photo “Gaza Cinderella”. The director behind it was a girl at a UNRWA-run school in Gaza. She made a drawing that was filled with tanks, soldiers, and helicopters along with a sky-full of missiles targeting a crying girl.
To create the photo on her account, Brain used locally found toys while missile strikes were hitting close-by.
However, ISIS stole the image and created a copy of it. They removed the Cinderella toy and replaced it with their flag and another iconography, protected by some sort of shield.
They used the morphed photo for almost a year. It helped them to promote their propaganda and recruit new members on Twitter. The image circulated online until 2015 when an image-tracking service Pixsy found it. Their blog post about the unusual find soon led to worldwide press attention.Â
Pixsy also helped Brain to remove the copies of the altered image from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Now, he has placed it on auction to raise funds for an organization that promotes peace.