Scams Rampant on YouTube with No Action; Ripple CEO Frustrated, Files Lawsuit

The CEO of blockchain payment processing company Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, filed a lawsuit yesterday in the San Francisco federal court, accusing the video streaming giant YouTube of turning a blind eye to harmful fraudulent activities targeting consumers, resulting in losses for XRP holders and causing irreparable damage to the reputation of Ripple company and Garlinghouse himself.

Allowing Scams to Damage Ripple's Reputation

According to a report by Fortune magazine, Ripple and Garlinghouse have filed a complaint with the San Francisco federal court, accusing YouTube of damaging their brand and reputation and seeking damages (exact amount undisclosed). The complaint states:

"Due to YouTube's deliberate and incomprehensible failures, it has allowed pervasive harmful scam activities on its platform. As a result, Ripple and Mr. Garlinghouse's public image, brand, and reputation have been and continue to be irreparably harmed."

The scams are similar to those seen on other social media platforms, where scammers promise returns in exchange for sending XRP ranging from 2,000 to 500,000, with the promise of receiving 20,000 to 5,000,000 XRP in return. However, once the victims send the funds, the scammers disappear. The complaint referenced several tactics in this incident, including hackers compromising legitimate creators' accounts and spreading scam ads related to Ripple.

The complaint highlights that YouTube not only turned a blind eye to the spread of such videos but also allowed these scam videos to be promoted for profit. Allegedly, these scam videos also involved keywords like "Ripple" and "Brad Garlinghouse" to target those searching for these terms.

Accusing YouTube of Profiting Without Action

In the complaint, Ripple stated that it hired a third-party company to track such scams and sent hundreds of messages to YouTube requesting the removal of these scams, yet the media giant's response was slow and inadequate. Garlinghouse stated in an interview with Fortune:

"YouTube generated $15 billion in ad revenue last year. Are you telling me they can't spend more money to monitor obvious scams that violate their terms of service?"

A spokesperson for Google's YouTube told Fortune that they take their platform seriously and swiftly take action when they find any behavior violating their community policies, such as scams or impersonation.

On the other hand, Garlinghouse claimed to have received a series of violent threats as some victims mistakenly believed he was involved in the scams. Despite this, he expressed sympathy for the victims of these scams and promised in the interview that Ripple would compensate the victims of this YouTube scam using the damages or settlement funds obtained from the case.