Ripple, a Blockchain -based Payments company, has decided to take legal action against YouTube for “dangerous online giveaway scams and false impersonations” involving XRP.
Announced on Tuesday, the San Francisco-based startup has named multiple social media companies including Facebook and Twitter for allowing such activities, but the legal action is only taken against Google’s video platform.
“This lawsuit calls on the video platform to do a number of things,” Ripple stated. “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.”
The company detailed that “giveaway scams” are targeting social media users, resulting in the loss of thousands of funds.
“These scams accurately impersonate individuals and companies, and are often spread through fake social media profiles,” the announcement added.
Benefiting from Coronavirus fear
This came when multiple global and local regulators issued warnings against many online scams leveraging people’s fears of the COVID-19 outbreak and asking for extortion in cryptocurrencies.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US’ Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are among the top watchdogs warning against such scams.
Meanwhile, YouTube moved against crypto-specific content creators multiple times, by taking down their videos. Some of the creators had hundreds of thousands of followers.
The platform, however, restored the contents clarifying that it was an error of the algorithm.
“This is a call to action,” Ripple stated. “YouTube and other big technology and social media platforms must be held accountable for not implementing sufficient processes for fighting these scams.”
