Prominent Entrepreneur and the Co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, has filed a lawsuit against YouTube and Google over an alleged Bitcoin giveaway scams that are being perpetrated on the noble video streaming platform for many months, joining Ripple that is already batling the firm in the court.
Wozniak joins a league of 17 other individuals who were victims of the fraud from various countries.
According to the Complainant, the frauds associated with Bitcoin Giveaway are being perpetrated on YouTube using the images of celebrities including Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, and Ellon Musk to preach to YouTubers that they are hosting a live Bitcoin giveaway where users’ who send in their Bitcoin will receive double in return.
However, users who fall for this preaching and send in their holdings get nothing in return. It was reported in the complaint that Google and YouTube ignored the continuous request from the complainants to bring down the scam video to protect users in the YouTube community.
The complaint further alleged that YouTube had intentionally promoted and benefitted from the fraudulent videos, as the platform continuously provided advertising services to the scam videos, it was further stated that the Fraud had to an immeasurable extent harmed Steve Wozniak’s reputation.
Steve after filling the complaint explained that if YouTube had responded to earlier requests calling for the bring down of the fraudulent videos, the fraud wouldn’t have wreaked much havoc.
He went further to point out that YouTube and Google had only relied on algorithms and made no special efforts to stop the fraudulent Bitcoin Giveaway scam activities.
When a crime is being committed, humans are capable of putting a stop to it, said Steve, who also posed a question that what type of human would have noticed such criminal activities and not revoke it immediately.
One of the lawyers representing Steve Wozniak and the 17 other complainants, Joe Cotchett, reported that when a similar incident was experienced on Twitter through a hack which affected about 130 accounts belonging to celebrities, the Twitter management sprung into action immediately and shut down the Bitcoin fraudulent Giveaway scam within a day.
Also, another lawyer representing the complainants, Brian Danitz, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, said YouTube is yet to bring down the Bitcoin Giveaway scam, he pointed out that the complainants are from the UK, US, Japan, Canada, China, Malaysia and all over Europe has alleged that millions of dollars have been lost in the scam, with a claim that it could have been prevented by YouTube.
YouTube Hits Back at Ripple
The YouTube management in response to the law suit filed against it by Ripple filed a motion seeking the dismissal of the case, the noble video streaming platform declared that it had played no part in the fraudulent scam.
YouTube further stated that it had embargoed the fraudulent videos immediately it received notifications that some hijacked accounts are posting some fraudulent contents, the platform prayed for the dismissal of the Ripple suit quoting the section 230 of the Communication Decency Law which states that providers or users of interactive computer services shall not be hold accountable as the speaker or publisher of information from other information providers.
