Steve Wozniak is about to lose a lawsuit against YouTube. The Apple co-founder accuses the platform of allowing his image to be used in videos about a fake Bitcoin giveaway .
Steve Wozniak's legal actions have been thwarted by a US federal law. It is a legislation that protects Internet platforms from liability for the content published by users .
According to Bloomberg, both YouTube and its parent company, Google LLC, are under the Communications Decency Act , which applies to the entire United States.
Steve Wozniak had requested in his lawsuit that Section 230 of the aforementioned law not apply. This is because YouTube did not remove the fraudulent videos in which he appeared.
As if this were not enough, the well-known engineer said that YouTube “materially contributed” to the scam by allowing content to be driven by ad campaigns of the platform itself.
However, Santa Clara County Judge Sunil R. Kulkarnia found that the plaintiffs' arguments were not sufficient to omit Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Consequently, Steve Wozniak cannot sue YouTube . Justice has given him 30 days to review his complaint. And while unlikely, the legal team could still find another way to convince the judge.
Steve Wozniak, fraudulent cryptocurrencies and videos on YouTube
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash According to the lawsuit, the scammers claimed that Steve Wozniak was organizing a Bitcoin giveaway . It indicated that if users sent this cryptocurrency to the co-founder of Apple, they will receive double it.
“YouTube has featured a constant stream of fraudulent videos and promotions that falsely use images and videos of plaintiff Steve Wozniak and other famous tech entrepreneurs, and have defrauded YouTube users with millions of dollars”
Part of the demand Precisely, the fraudulent videos also took the image of other technological references such as the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and writer and speaker Robert Kiyosaki .
“Despite repeated pleas from plaintiffs and other users that YouTube take appropriate action to end this bitcoin giveaway scam, YouTube repeatedly delayed or refused to do so,” the lawsuit states.
