TL;DR Breakdown
- Ripple and Youtube to fund NGO for cybercrime victims.
- Ripple CEO unhappy with imposters on social media.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed the firm’s next point of action after the lawsuit between the company and the online video platform Youtube ended recently. Brad Garlinghouse revealed that the lawsuit settlement would see both firms donate an undisclosed amount of money to a cybercrime non-profit organization.
The Ripple CEO disclosed that he and the company had settled a lawsuit they filed against YouTube over a flurry of videos in which scammers uploaded clips of Garlinghouse to promote various crypto crimes.
The trend whereby scammers use pictures of prominent individuals to run crypto scams has become pervasive not only in the crypto world but in the business world generally. Imposters have used people like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Richard Branson, among others, on social media to run series of scams.
Ripple and Brad Garlinghouse sued Youth April last year, where they claimed that the online streaming platform turned a blind eye to the problem. Ripple claimed they profited from the issue, allowing scammers to purchase keywords to target crypto enthusiasts.
He said after the lawsuit settlement, Ripple and Youtube would now work together to prevent and detect similar scams. The CEO revealed that they have been using a forensics company to track stolen funds related to the scams but added that social media companies needed to do more.
Brad Garlinghouse gives details of NGO funding
In an interview, Garlinghouse said that the legal settlement would involve YouTube and Ripple funding a non-profit together dedicated to helping victims of cybercrime.
He declined to speak further on the exact amount and how much the companies will contribute, and whether the fund would provide cash compensation. He said they would share more information once the legal work was finalized.
The Ripple CEO also expressed frustration with social media companies. He claimed they were highly profitable and could afford to do more to police their platforms and kick out the impostors.
Garlinghouse spoke about a scenario where he reported an Instagram account and told Instagram the account was impersonating him. Instagram said to him that the account wasn’t impersonating him. He noted he had received violent threats from people who have been victims of scams.
Google is still yet to comment about the YouTube settlement with Ripple in court.
