Ripple Sues YouTube for Allowing XRP Giveaway Scams
The lawsuit concerns scams on YouTube that entice investors to send XRP to specific wallets in exchange for a bigger amount of XRP in return.
April 23, 2020 – Ripple sues YouTube for its inaction in stopping XRP giveaway scams on the video-sharing platform.
The lawsuit concerns scams on YouTube that entice investors to send XRP to specific wallets in exchange for a bigger amount of XRP in return. In a series of tweets, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghous accused large companies from failing to “police” their platforms from imposter giveaway scams that continue to scam people.
Mr. Garlinghouse said he and Ripple are going to take legal action against Youtube because it is the epicenter of imposter scams and that the video platform had done next to nothing about their takedown requests.
Mr. Garlinghouse said this is an industry-wide problem wherein large companies lack accountability. He recounted when he reported a fake account of his on Instagram, yet Instagram responded that the account he reported did not violate their platforms.
YouTube’s inertia is indicative of an industry-wide problem of a lack of accountability. Victims are forced to jump through hoops to report these scams, and oftentimes that doesn’t even work – ex: when @Instagram told me I wasn’t being impersonated (3/4) https://t.co/ILhS0AcPb2
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) April 21, 2020
The complaint states that Mr. Garlinghouse and Ripple suffered “irreparable harm to their public image, brand, and reputation as a direct consequence of YouTube’s deliberate and inexplicable failure to address a pervasive and injurious fraud occurring on its platform.”
The XRP Giveaway Scam relies on phishing attacks and hacked YouTube accounts, but Ripple said this scam thrives because YouTube is complacent and unwilling to take seriously its repeated demands for action.
The complaint further stated that the scam has been replicated multiple times and that one single instance of this scam has resulted in $15,000 worth of XRP stolen.
With that, Ripple is asking the Court to “compel” YouTube to “fulfill its legal obligation” and stop the scam by shutting down the videos related to it, as well as any scam which uses Ripple’s trademarks such as its logo, etc.
Read: Ripple’s Lawsuit against YouTube here.
Sources: The Block Crypto, Coindesk, Brad Garlinghouse on Twitter
This article is published on BitPinas: Ripple Sues YouTube for Allowing XRP Giveaway Scams
