Several celebrities, including Apple co-founder Bill Gates, are suing YouTube for doing nothing about the cryptographic scam
Original title: YouTube Sued by Celebrities for Inaction over Cryptocurrency fraud, Apple Co-founder and Bill Gates Both Victims
Babbitt
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and 17 other individuals are suing YouTube and Google for failing to detect a bitcoin "airdrop" scam on the platform, according to a document.
According to the complaint, "tens of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency were lost in this scam" that could have been stopped by YouTube.
(Scam example)
The scam had been running for months on the video-sharing platform, and the men, represented by Cotchett, Pitre & Amp, were demanding compensation. McCarthy, a law firm in California.
Mr. Wozniak said photos of him and other tech entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and Bill Gates, had been used in a Bitcoin airdrop scam on YouTube. This takes the form of inserting fraudulent messages into a live stream, inducing viewers to send bitcoins (or other cryptocurrencies) with the promise of a high return. Needless to say, the victims didn't receive any money.
The plaintiffs said they had repeatedly reported the scam to YouTube and Google, but received no response. They accuse the two companies of actively promoting and profiting from defamation while deliberately providing targeted advertising to fraudsters.
Wozniak said:
"If YouTube had acted sooner to stop its reach, we wouldn't be where we are today. Like Google, YouTube seems to rely on algorithms and, in these criminal cases, offenders can quickly use custom software without special effort." He added that such schemes had and would continue to cause reputational damage to him and other plaintiffs.
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Why can't YouTube take a page from Twitter? & have spent
One of Wozniak's lawyers, Joe Cotchett, appeared to praise Twitter for its swift action in last week's Bitcoin scam, detaining the relevant account:
"When the Twitter accounts of 130 celebrities were massively hacked, they quickly stopped the Bitcoin scam within a day." But he attacked YouTube for its incompetence: "In stark contrast, YouTube knowingly allowed the Bitcoin scam to continue for months, promoting it and making money by selling targeted ads." Brian Danitz, another partner at the law firm, said the scam was huge and affected users everywhere. "The scale of the Bitcoin airdrop scam on YouTube is huge and it continues. The fraud victims being sued come from all over the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, China and throughout Europe." According to a report released this month by Whale Alert, fraudsters made $24m in the first six months of 2020, including $130,000 in a single YouTube AD.
Whale Alert also notes that many scams continue. In the past 24 hours, it reported that 1.9 bitcoins had been defrauded. When will it all end?
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When the same thing happened to Ripple CEO... & have spent
Ripple and its chief executive, Brad Garlinghouse, sued YouTube in April, claiming that the google-owned platform failed to stop fraudsters from using their photos for fraudulent airdrops. At the time, the company claimed:
"The public image, brand and reputation of Ripple and Mr. Garlinghouse have suffered and will continue to suffer irreparably as YouTube has deliberately and failed to address the damaging fraud that is prevalent on its platform." In response, YouTube has asked a US federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Ripple.
In an April statement, YouTube said, "We take the abuse of our platform seriously and act quickly when we detect fraud or forgery that violates our policies."
On July 20th YouTube responded by rejecting his application. YouTube's central argument against Ripple's claims, according to public records, is that it is not responsible for the content on its site and has a history of taking action to remove malicious content once it is notified of it. YouTube cites Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act (CDA), which effectively provides websites with a protective cover against content posted on their platforms.
"The plaintiff suing YouTube for failing to take adequate measures to prevent the third party the deceiver hijacked multiple YouTube user account, and by implementing encryption stolen account money scam. YouTube is not planned or participated in the fraud, fraud in hijacked account released content after YouTube deleted these. In CDA section 230 failure of the plaintiff's state law claims, and claim they are all failed."
"Plaintiffs acknowledged the YouTube community guidelines prohibit similar fraud and deception. It is pointed out in the complaint, when the plaintiff (or its agent) marked fraud, fraud or hijacked accounts, YouTube will continue to delete these content. But the plaintiff argues that YouTube in some cases, not fast enough response to the plaintiff's complaint and YouTube should take the initiative to take responsibility, to find and remove the plaintiff no special content to YouTube's fraud." A motion hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for August 27, court hearers said.
So YouTube is taking a hard line and may not offer any compensation. For cryptocurrency users, keep your eyes open and don't believe in good things that come out of the blue.
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