Steve Wozniak – the co-founder of Apple Computers – has filed a suit against popular video-streaming website YouTube for allowing bitcoin scammers to use his likeness in their fraudulent advertising.
Steve Wozniak Takes Legal Action
Thus far, the scam in question is believed to have garnered millions of dollars from users all around the world. While Wozniak is at the center of the lawsuit, the case is a class-action suit that also involves as many as 17 additional victims of the scam who claim they have all lost money. Seven are from the rural United States, while an additional ten reside outside American territories.
This is not the first time YouTube has been accused of such activity. Not too long ago, it was reported that Ripple – the third largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap – and its head honcho Brad Garlinghouse had filed suit against the video site for allegedly doing little to nothing to prevent Ripple from being at the center of fake giveaways and airdrops.
Garlinghouse claims that Ripple’s reputation has been permanently damaged due to YouTube’s reported lack of security and says that the currency has been at the center of multiple scams advertised on the site over the years.
Wozniak has purportedly been in a legal battle with both YouTube and Google – the owner of the video-streaming platform – since early May, and claims that he’s fought hard to get both companies to end the scams that use his face for their benefit. Despite several alleged tries, the scam persists, and Wozniak is now taking things a step further. In a statement, he said:
It’s like Whack-A-Mole. You can never reach a human who would easily understand the situation and get it rectified by some method. Anybody would look at that and say it’s a crime. We never got to a human. Maybe I could pull some strings, but I don’t believe in pulling strings.
At the time of writing, YouTube is refusing to offer any commentary regarding its case with Wozniak, though it has mentioned that it has terminated nearly two million accounts since the beginning of the year, which has resulted in the removal of more than two million separate videos that have allegedly disobeyed YouTube’s rules and regulations.
Things Like This Seem to Happen A Lot
In a separate statement, the streaming platform claimed:
We take abuse of our platform seriously and take action quickly when we detect violation of our policies.
The news comes on the heels of a similar story, in which several high-profile Twitter accounts were taken hostage as a means of garnering bitcoin that was not earned honestly. Some of the accounts that were compromised included those of former president Barack Obama, his vice-president Joe Biden, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates.