Organization Sapien Tribe is making a statement against Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, and they’re doing it with a seven-foot tall statue of slain silverback gorilla Harambe.
The statue was previously spotted in front of the famous bull statue on Wall Street in New York City, but the organization is now turning its attention to Facebook amid its ongoing whistleblower scandal. "Sapien is taking the initiative with Harambe and offering an alternative social experience to the existing system, enabled by technology but governed by people instead of algorithms," said Sapien Tribe founding member Ankit Bhatia.
The Sapien Tribe says that it is currently working on an alternative social media platform, promising to take a more ethical approach to online networking. In a press release, Sapien Tribe said the installations were done to "Show that the dominant power structures created by financial institutions like Wall Street and technology empires like Facebook have become wholly out of touch with the needs of everyday people."
"This is an ecosystem that values human connection over division," added Sapien's Teja Aluru. Accompanied by the statue is thousands of bananas, which the organization said will be donated to food banks in the Bay Area. Following the arrival of the statue on Wall Street, the organization said that it will bring the statue to numerous locations across the country.
Earlier this year, a photo taken by Harambe’s official photographer Jeff McCurry was sold off as an NFT to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Cincinnati Zoo silverback’s death. The photo was reportedly taken on the same day he arrived at the zoo.
