US courts say YouTube is not to blame for prevailing bitcoin scams.
With a new financial innovation like cryptocurrencies, there is a good number to abuse its features. The events of cryptocurrency scams have been prevailing for years on end. Last year, some fraudulent activities carried out on YouTube videos bore the face of Steve Wozniak. Apple’s cofounder had blamed the YouTube platform for being “unresponsive” in taking down these videos. For this reason, Wozniak had filed charges against YouTube.
Major Updates
- Wozniak claims do not bypass the Communications Decency Acts.
- Tech company CEOs feature in many impersonation crypto crimes.
- Crypto impersonation crimes prevail on social media platforms, especially Twitter.
The legal charges against YouTube have been short-lived as the US courts told Wozniak that he could not blame YouTube for the crypto scams.
The charges had been filed in July last year. They stated that fraudulent personalities had used videos and images of Wozniak to dupe Youtubers of their cryptocurrencies. The scam consisted of Youtubers being told to send in their cryptocurrencies and have them doubled and sent back. Cryptocurrency transactions being decentralized favored successful scams. Furthermore, as unsuspecting victims send in their cryptocurrencies, they would receive nothing in return.
During the case, section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was referenced. This gave media platforms immunity against the responsibility of over such content uploaded by their users.
However, Wozniak complained that YouTube was “unresponsive” in deleting this content following his requests. He also accused them of actively contributing to the scams by verifying these channels and placing target ads.
Additionally, these videos also incorporated several other personalities as well as Memes. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates can also be seen in these fraudulent scam videos, as well as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Conclusion
Judge Sunil R. Kulkarni of the Santa Clara County Superior Court says that his complaints could not bypass the Communications Decency Act.
This is no different from many other scams where several reputable personalities, most especially CEOs of big tech companies, have been used in carrying out these crypto crimes. Impersonation is the order of the day as many cases erupt on different media platforms, especially Twitter.
Question of the Day
Do you think YouTube is to blame for the scam videos?
