Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak won the latest round of his legal battle against YouTube over doctored videos of him circulated on the platform promoting a Bitcoin scam. The recent San Jose appeals court ruling overruled a lower court verdict that cleared the video platform of any responsibility.
According to the court, YouTube cannot use contentious communications statute as a shield. The verdict will allow the Apple co-founder to continue his suit against YouTube. Furthermore, Wozniac’s crusade may lead to a change in Federal law. The current law protects video-streaming platforms from liabilities of videos posted on them.
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Wozniac is not the only big name in the lawsuit, filed in 2020 against YouTube and its parent company, Google. The suit also had signatures from 17 other individuals. The list includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla, SpaceX, X chief Elon Musk, and Dell founder Michael Dell.
What did the Bitcoin scam video featuring the Apple co-founder’s likeness show?
The video, which went viral in 2020, featured people resembling the Apple co-founder and offered free Bitcoin (BTC) to viewers. Moreover, the video asked viewers to send BTC to an address to double their money.
According to a Santa Clara County Superior Court, companies are protected from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. However, the appeals court noted that YouTube channels often get hacked to promote scams. Additionally, the court highlighted that the platform is responsible for ‘materially contributing’ to the scam by ‘providing verification badges to hijacked YouTube channels.’
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The court also noted that YouTube failed to remove the verification badges when the channels started posting scam videos.
Wozniac’s lawyer, Joe Cotchett, stated how ‘Google and YouTube take responsibility for their actions and cannot use Section 230 as a total shield for their conduct.‘