Controversial Nas Academy returns with free ‘community classes’

After a controversial pause, Nas Academy revived its online learning platform in the Philippines, offering free “community classes” on content creation and more. (WATCH: Why Nas Academy hit pause on Philippine operations)

Nas Academy creator Nusseir Yassin – more popularly known by his vlog Nas Daily – announced the free classes on Facebook on Thursday, September 16.

“Nas Academy is all about giving back, so we are running Free Community Classes in the Philippines,” he said in the post.

The free classes cover content creation, audio production, phone cinematography, and “confidence-building,” and they run once a week from September 22 to October 13.

The new classes come a little more than a month after the platform halted operations in the Philippines over controversy surrounding a course that featured traditional tattoo artist Whang-Od.

The course offered lessons in traditional tattoo methods from the 104-year-old tattoo artist, but it was taken down from the Nas Academy website after Whang-Od’s grandniece Grace Palicas called it a “scam.”

Nas Academy denied this, saying it got Whang-Od’s consent for the course. It also showed a video of the artist apparently affixing her thumbprint on a contract.

However, an investigation by the National Commission on Indigenous Peopls (NCIP) found the contract to be “onerous,” and said that Whang-Od was not aware of it. Despite NCIP’s findings, Nas Academy still insisted that they had Whang-Od’s consent.

Amid the controversy, other personalities who were set to teach courses under Nas Academy pulled out, including Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, and broadcaster Jessica Soho. – Rappler.com