Ripple, the payment protocol and the company behind the third-largest cryptocurrency XRP, is taking legal action against the video giant YouTube.
The firm wants to hold the platform accountable for not fighting the increased number of giveaway scams and false impersonations appearing on its website.
In a recent post, Ripple announced that it will file a lawsuit against the most widely-used video sharing platform. The company blames YouTube for not taking the necessary action to confront fraudsters and scammers who are regularly utilizing the platform to run deceitful activities.
For instance, the report outlines “giveaway scams” as one of the triggers. The term is used to describe attempts to defraud money from unsuspecting victims via social media impersonations. The scammers try to convince people that they can send a certain amount of money and will receive more shortly – typically through an airdrop.
“It’s time to end this unacceptable behavior and protect our friends, family members, and consumers everywhere. YouTube and other big technology and social media platforms must be held accountable for not implementing sufficient processes for fighting these scams.” – the report reads.
Per the document, Ripple’s name has been involved in numerous such activities on YouTube. As a result, the firm hired external cybersecurity and digital threat intelligence vendor to help with reporting and takedown efforts.
With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), online scams are becoming even more frequent, as perpetrators are exploiting the desperation of people, the report added.
In fact, even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently published a study on the matter. It claimed that perpetrators utilize the pandemic to dupe victims into sending cryptocurrency funds to nonexistent organizations.
In an interview, Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, admitted that his name had been used on several occasions in such impersonations.
He added that similar fraudulent activities had been carried out on other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. However, his company singled out YouTube because the other platforms “have been relatively more responsive to complaints about scammers and fake accounts.”
Thus, he believes that more crooks are relocating to YouTube, and the media giant is not making enough effort to curtail them:
“YouTube generated $15 billion in ad revenue last year, and you’re telling me that they can’t spend more money to police obvious scams that violate their own terms of service? – he noted.
Interestingly enough, the cryptocurrency community already has a somewhat tense relationship with YouTube. Since late 2019, the platform started issuing warnings and removing videos of popular digital asset content creators in what later became known as the “Crypto Purge.”