Apple Alliance wins Bitcoin fraud lawsuit against YouTube

Author: Prashant Jha, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is in the latest round of court litigation with YouTube Wins a lawsuit involving YouTube's use of doctored videos featuring his likeness in a 2020 Bitcoin scam. The appeals court's latest ruling overturns a lower court decision that absolved YouTube of any liability.

A San Jose appeals court ruled that YouTube cannot rely on controversial communications regulations to absolve it from liability for fraudulent practices that took advantage of the Apple co-founder's popularity to deceive people by doctoring videos, Bloomberg reported. .

The latest ruling allows Wozniak to continue his lawsuit against video streaming platforms and may pave the way for changes in federal law to protect video streaming platforms such as YouTube from Any liability arising from the videos posted on the platform.

In 2020, the Apple co-founder joined the likes of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Michael Dell after a doctored video promoting a false scam went viral on YouTube. Seventeen people have filed lawsuits against YouTube and its parent company, Google.

The doctored video added additional text and images, promising free Bitcoins and asking viewers to send Bitcoins to a specific address to receive double the money.

The appeals court’s latest ruling is seen as a major victory for Wozniak and others, as a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge ruled in 2022 that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, These companies are protected from liability.

Popular YouTube channels are regularly hacked to promote scams, an appeals court judge has observed. Google and YouTube "contributed significantly" to the scam by "providing verification badges to hijacked YouTube channels."

When the channel started posting scam videos, the platform also failed to remove these verification badges, which were obtained during the scam.

As a result, the appeals court held that companies may not be protected by Section 230 immunity because they facilitated the fraud through verification.

Wozniak's lawyer, Joe Cotchett, said the decision highlighted "how social media platforms such as Google and YouTube can be held accountable for their actions and cannot use Section 230 as a comprehensive umbrella for their conduct.”