YouTube is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by Ripple earlier in April. The video-sharing Google subsidiary has been accused of promoting XRP giveaway scams, causing reputational damage to Ripple and the firm’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.
In a response filing on July 20, YouTube argued that as an interactive computer service provider, it should is not liable for content published by third parties as per Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Ripple had sued YouTube because it failed to control giveaway scams to an extent where a particular individual was scammed $15,000. According to Ripple’s argument, the video-sharing giant had not only facilitated financial losses due to scams but also increased their reputational risk as a firm. In the motion, Ripple suggested a couple of actions to taken be by YouTube:
“This lawsuit calls on the video platform to do a number of things … First, to be more aggressive and proactive in identifying these scams, before they’re posted. Second, faster removal of these scams once they are identified and lastly, to not profit from these scams.”
In its defense, YouTube has come out to ask for the dismissal of the charges filed by Ripple, noting that it cannot be tied to the giveaway scams. As per YouTube’s argument, they are not at fault since they did not willingly engage any of the third parties or contribute to the content posted.
The firm went on to state that the Ad’s approval or endorsements could not hold water, adding that it always shuts down such scams when given a heads up. Basing the argument on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, YouTube’s filings highlighted,
“Plaintiffs have sued YouTube for allegedly failing to do enough to prevent third-party fraudsters from hijacking various YouTube user accounts and perpetrating a crypto-currency scam through those stolen accounts.
YouTube did not orchestrate or participate in that scam, and after being notified about fraudulent content posted by the hijacked accounts, YouTube removed it. Plaintiffs’ state-law claims are barred by Section 230 of the CDA, 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”), and all their claims fail of their own accord.”
While this is still in motion, YouTube has again been sued by the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, who claims that the platform allowed malicious players to initiate Bitcoin giveaway scams in his likeness. Apple’s co-founder, along with 18 other litigators, now want YouTube to pull the scams down, as well as compensate them for the punitive damages.