YouTube is responding to a lawsuit filed by Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse that alleges the video sharing site’s “deliberate inaction” is making it easy for scammers to steal cryptocurrency.
The lawsuit demands compensation for damages to the company’s brand and reputation due to YouTube’s failure to stop fraudsters who are impersonating Ripple and Garlinghouse.
In an interview with Bloomberg Technology anchor Emily Chang, Garlinghouse says fraudsters were hard at work trying to rip people off long before the coronavirus pandemic, which has triggered a significant spike in online scams.
“What we are seeing is scammers are taking advantage of these platforms… Frankly this has been going on as relates to cryptocurrencies, as relates to Ripple, and specifically XRP. It’s been going on for well over a year.”
In response, YouTube is refuting the notion that it ignores fraudulent activities on its platform.
The company says it has taken down millions of suspicious videos in its efforts to police the platform.
“We take abuse of our platform seriously and take action quickly when we detect violations of our own policies like scams and impersonations.”
Ripple controls more than half of the total supply of XRP and uses the token to facilitate cross-border payments. Garlinghouse says he and his firm decided to take action after finding YouTube to be the least effective at responding to reports of fraud.
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