Nas Daily followers drop by more than half a million amid ‘pinoybaiting’ controversy

Catriona Gray and Jessica Soho have both hit pause on their Nas Academy courses as well.

In recent days, vlogger Nas Daily has been dealt with one hard blow after another by Filipinos online in the wake of his alleged exploitation of traditional tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od.

Since August 4 — the day that Nas Daily was thrown allegations of “Pinoy-baiting” and cultural exploitation for trying to recruit Apo Whang-Od as an instructor in Nas Academy — up to press date, Nas Daily’s follower count on Facebook has dropped from 20.96 million down to 20.31 million, posting a steep decline of more than 650,000 — and the number is still growing.

As an initial response to all the verbal jabs struck by various Filipino social media users, the local page of Nas Daily posted a video explaining that, contrary to claims put forth by Apo Whang-Od’s grandniece, the online tattoo course is not a scam and they acquired the legendary artist’s full consent.

But his clarification fell on deaf ears, as more Filipino enterprises only stood up to speak out against the Israeli vlogger. One of them, The Cacao Project founder Louise Mabulo, claimed that having Nas Daily over to be able to tell her social enterprise’s story was an unpleasant experience and that the vlogger only cared for “clickable, viewable content.”

https://www.facebook.com/77tynycae/posts/10215120718369580

From there, the online brawl only grew bigger as Nas threw punches of his own, calling Mabulo’s The Cacao Project “false” and deeming it a “family business which you profit from” instead of a social enterprise as it claims to be.

https://www.facebook.com/nasdailyphilippines/posts/645862353473005

Then on Monday, Nas posted a six-minute video calling for his followers to shun all the fake news that’s been flung his way in recent days. 

https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/posts/378109983686680

Nas Academy hits pause

In light of the issue surrounding Apo Whang-Od’s involvement as a prospective instructor on Nas Academy, the online learning platform has said that it will pause operations until the issue is resolved. 

Despite calls for the virtual academy to apologize, it instead claimed on its statement that its “intentions were misunderstood” and that it will “come back more energized and ready to help more inspiring people become teachers in the Philippines.”

https://www.facebook.com/NasAcademy/posts/363157051983863

Meanwhile, Cornerstone Entertainment, the talent management company of Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, as well as veteran journalist Jessica Soho have both pulled the plug on their respective Nas Academy courses as well. On each of their statement, they made clear that they will not proceed until the platform has reached a resolution with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). Gray was set to start a “beauty queen academy” on the platform, while Soho was scheduled to teach broadcast journalism.

https://www.facebook.com/NasAcademy/posts/363157051983863
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSTfQ72hEr8/
https://www.facebook.com/kapusomojessicasoho/posts/10159404231526026

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