Several attendees at an NFT festival in Hong Kong have been hospitalised after they reported experiencing vision issues, eye-burning sensations and sunburned skin after the event, which was allegedly lit with UV lighting. ApeFest 2023 was held from Friday to Sunday for members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and their guests. To be a member, people must own an NFT within the collection of digital ape artworks. The Bored Ape Yacht Club artworks, created by blockchain company Yuga Labs, gained notoriety for becoming an exclusive online club that includes celebrities who have bought a Bored Ape NFT, such as Madonna, Justin Beiber, Serena Williams and many more, according to Decrypt. The NFTs, which, like cryptocurrency, sit on a blockchain; the person who owns the image has sole intellectual property rights and can choose to sell to another owner. Many crypto and NFT owners and fans went to the event, but some came away from the experience with bizarre symptoms. Attendees took to X (formerly Twitter) to ask other fest-goers if they had similar symptoms. One user wrote: “Anyone else’s eyes burning from last night? Woke up at 3am with extreme pain and ended up in the ER.” To which another person, under the username @CryptoJune777, replied: “I woke up at 04:00 and couldn’t see anymore. Had so much pain and my whole skin is burned. Needed to go to the hospital.” @CryptoJune77 also added that a doctor said that it could have been the UV lighting coming from the stage that burned their skin and damaged their eyes. Many other people replied to the tweets, saying they had experienced the same issue, with some also adding that they had to go to hospital. Another user, Adrian ZduÅ„czyk, said he had to pay $3000HKD ($383USD) for his hospital expenses after he was diagnosed with “photokeratitis over both eyes” due to unprotected exposure to UV radiation. “So many of my friends are still unaware they must seek medical help to make sure they end up with no damage, as well,” the user wrote. “Please go get your eyes checked immediately. We’ve most likely been exposed to experience similar to Mt Everest climbers - snow blindness.” UV radiation can cause photokeratitis, which is essentially like sunburning your eye, which can produce symptoms such as blurriness, tearing, redness and, in rare cases, temporary vision loss or colour changes, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Photokertitis is often associated with snow blindness, as climbers, snowboarders, or skiers can experience it when the sun reflects off ice and snow. After the sunburn allegations started circulating on social media, the Bored Ape Yacht Club issued a statement on X. “Apes, we are aware of the eye-related issues that affected some of the attendees of ApeFest and have been proactively reaching out to individuals since yesterday to try and find the potential root causes,” they said in their post. “Based on our estimates, we believe that much less than 1% of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.” “While nearly everyone has indicated their symptoms have improved, we encourage anybody who feels them to seek medical attention just in case,” the club added. The owner of the Bored Ape Yacht Club project, Yuga Labs, told The Verge that it is aware of the situation and is taking the reports seriously. “We are actively reaching out and in touch with those affected to better understand the root cause,” said a spokesperson for the company. “Based on our estimates, the 15 people we’ve been in direct communication with so far represent less than one per cent of the approximately 2,250 event attendees and staff at our Saturday night event.” The Independent has contacted Yuga Labs for further comment. Read More Guidance set to urge parents not to buy smartphones for primary school children ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant Elon Musk weighs in on the scooped bagel debate Guidance set to urge parents not to buy smartphones for primary school children ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant Elon Musk weighs in on the scooped bagel debate

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TikTok prankster Mizzy has been banned from using social media after he was found guilty of posting videos without consent. The star, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was found to have “deliberately flouted” a court order prohibiting him from sharing videos of people without their consent “within hours” of it being passed. Judge Matthew Bone, overseeing the 19-year-old’s trial at Stratford Magistrates Court on Thursday, slammed O’Garro for “lacking all credibility” after he denied four counts of breaching the order. He ordered the father-of-one not to use social media “at all” except to send messages until he is sentenced next month and warned that he could go to prison for the offences he had committed. It comes after O’Garro’s defence lawyer Paul Lennon revealed to the court earlier on Thursday that his client had been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. O’Garro’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence at the trial, was also arrested and both were bailed on the condition that they do not contact each other. Mr Lennon attempted to adjourn the hearing, claiming O’Garro was unable to receive a “fair trial” without his only witness, but his application was rejected by Judge Bone. I found it to be an intentional, immediate, and deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order Judge Bone The court heard how O’Garro began sharing videos of people without their consent on the same day the criminal behaviour order was passed on May 24 this year. It was shown footage, shared on O’Garro’s Twitter account on the night of May 24 featuring him in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, after he appeared on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show and mocked the British judicial system. In the video, passersby were visible in the background as Mizzy said to the camera: “The UK law is a joke.” Other videos shared on O’Garro’s Snapchat account, which were also in breach, showed him grabbing hold of a schoolboy by his uniform and another showing him fight a man with dwarfism, which O’Garro claimed were hoax videos made with their prior agreement. O’Garro’s claim that one of his friends, who had access to his login details, posted the Twitter videos without his consent, was dismissed by Judge Bone as “inconceivable”. The judge said: “I have to say I did not accept the evidence of the defendant – it lacked all credibility. “Within hours of the criminal behaviour order he posed (in Westfield) stating the video would be shared and it was. “The defendant was filmed trying to shake a man’s hand from whom consent was not obtained. “He had just appeared on national television saying the British law was weak. “I found it to be an intentional, immediate and deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order. You need to understand that you deliberately flouted this court order within hours of it being made Judge Bone “Dealing again with charge four, two people were roughed up on camera by the defendant – I found his behaviour was again a deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order.” Judge Bone found O’Garro not guilty on two further counts of the same charge, ruling that the videos in question may already have been shared before the criminal behaviour order was passed. However, he warned O’Garro: “The defendant shouldn’t take much comfort from that. “What I have convicted him of crosses the custody threshold. “This is a man who has stepped over the line of the order in a deliberate way. “You need to understand the seriousness of your situation now. “You need to understand that you deliberately flouted this court order within hours of it being made.” O’Garro will be sentenced on November 21 at Thames Magistrates Court. Read More Study finds ‘deepfakes’ from Ukraine war undermining trust in conflict footage More than 500 potential cyber attacks logged every second, BT says AI being used to create child abuse imagery, watchdog warns ChatGPT and other chatbots ‘can be tricked into making code for cyber attacks’ Tinder adds Matchmaker feature to let friends recommend potential dates Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit

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