Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has lost his bid to sue YouTube over scam videos that claimed he was host of a Bitcoin giveaway and used his image.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Sunil R. Kulkarnia has denied Steve Wozniak’s lawsuit against YouTube, saying that there were insufficient factors to overcome Section 230 immunity. This is the part of the Communications Decency Act which states that platforms are not typically responsible for content posted by users.
According to Bloomberg, Wozniak’s suit argued that YouTube did not only host the videos in question, but “materially contributed” to the scam. Wozniak alleged that YouTube sold targeted ads that drove traffic to the videos, and also falsely verified their YouTube channels.
The videos presented Wozniak as the host of giveaway where people who sent bitcoin to a wallet address would be sent back double the amount. The scam was accompanied by tweets that were sent from Wozniak’s verified Twitter account, following a Twitter security breach in July 2020.
Other celebrities, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk, and companies like Apple were targeted with the same scam.
Judge Kulkarnia has given Wozniak 30 days to try to revise his complaint.
Separately, Wozniak is currently being sued over an alleged copyright infringement after he allowed a fan to use the title “Woz U” for an educational project.
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