Apple founder wins huge verdict against YouTube in Bitcoin fraud case
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has won the latest round of a court battle against YouTube over the use of doctored videos showing his likeness used in a 2020 Bitcoin scam. .
A San Jose appeals court has ruled that YouTube cannot rely on a controversial communications rule to shield Apple's co-founder from liability for a publicity stunt that used a doctored video to trick people, Bloomberg reported.
The final ruling could allow Wozniak to continue his lawsuit against the video streaming platform and pave the way for a change in federal law that shields video streaming platforms like YouTube from any liability that comes with videos posted on the platform.
The Apple founder and 17 others, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Michael Dell, have filed a lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Google after doctored videos appeared on YouTube promoting a 2020 scam.
The doctored video added additional text and images offering free Bitcoin (BTC), and asked viewers to send Bitcoin to an address to double the amount.
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge ruled in 2022 that the companies are immune from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a recent appeals court decision seen as a major victory for Wozniak and others.
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Court of Appeal judges have found that popular YouTube channels are often hacked to promote scams. Google and YouTube are responsible for “materially contributing” to the scam by “providing badges of authentication to hacked YouTube channels.”
When the channels started posting fraudulent videos, the platform failed to remove these verification badges, and one was given a verification badge in the process of cheating.
Therefore, the Court of Appeal observed that they cannot be protected by section 230 because they contributed to the fraud by investigating the companies.
Wozniak's attorney, Joe Cotchett, said the ruling “shows that social media platforms like Google and YouTube are taking responsibility for their actions and cannot use Section 230 as a blanket shield for their conduct.”
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