The company behind the XRP cryptocurrency wants YouTube to police its platform better
There have been a series of ongoing scams on YouTube that for cryptocurrency deposits and offering all kinds of benefits. Legitimate YouTube channels with a lot of followers are being hacked and offering content that supposedly comes supported by renowned figure in the crypto world. YouTube has been slow to react to these hacks, or hasn’t done anything at all, and Ripple is frustrated. The company behind the XRP crypto has filed a lawsuit against YouTube LLC in the Northern District of California, seeking compensation for damages from YouTube’s failure to stop these scammers.
The lawsuit was filed by Ripple Labs and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who is trying to “prompt an industry wide-behavior change and set the expectation of accountability,” according to an official company blog post. The lawsuit referred to this scam method as the “The XRP Giveaway,” which has already defrauded millions XRP cryptocurrency valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The accusation is presenting charges for first, violations of the Lanham Act for Trademark Infringement. Second, violations of California’s Statutory and Common Law Right of Publicity. Third, violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law.
The way the hackers used to get ahold of the user’s YouTube channel credentials was through some phishing emails; by replying, the YouTubers were also sharing the login information. While the channel is in hands of the hackers, users are urged to send “between 5,000 XRP and 1,000,000 XRP” to one of the listed addresses, promising to pay even five times more in return.
The plaintiffs alleged that “YouTube profits from the Scam by knowingly selling paid ads on behalf of the fraudsters who are impersonating Ripple and Mr. Garlinghouse. These ads — so-called ‘video discovery ads’ — are designed by YouTube to appear at the top of its search result page alongside organic search results.” They claimed these actions have irreparably damaged Ripple’s brand and Brad Garlinghouse’s reputation.
