The long standing battle between Steve Wozniak and YouTube seems nowhere near an end despite having clocked five years. Citing a global rise in Bitcoin scams, the Apple co-founder has reiterated his concerns that YouTube is not doing enough to combat the fraud on its platform.
Wozniak, 75, was speaking to CBS News when he said that people have lost their life savings owing to crypto scams flooding on the Google-owned platform.
“I was on YouTube, a well-known platform. I was watching a video from a verified business. And in that moment, I viewed it like a business transaction. It was like a kind of like a buy one get one free for Bitcoin. No, that’s a crime,” Wozniak said.
Wozniak’s legal history with YouTube
In 2020, Wozniak filed a lawsuit against YouTube, after he discovered that scammers impersonated him to advocate fake crypto schemes. He first found out about these scams — after a victim’s mail reached out to asking about the timeline for reimbursement.
As per reports, the scammers had repurposed an actual video of Woz talking about Bitcoin. They added a wallet address to this video — claiming that those who sent BTC to this address, would get double back in reimbursement.
A lower court had initially dismissed the entire case basis the CDA of 1996 — that gives immunity to platforms like YouTube against liability arising third party creators. In 2024, however, an appeals court reversed that decision. The ongoing lawsuit includes a group of 17 other plaintiffs as well.
“We never got to YouTube; our lawyer has gotten to their lawyer, that’s all,” Wozniak has been quoted as telling the media.
If Wozniak wins the lawsuit, YouTube could be ordered to pay monetary damages to the plaintiffs. It would also have YouTube increase the accountability of its platform through policy changes.
YouTube’s past with crypto scams
Wozniak is not the only public figure, whose identity has been exploited by crypto scammers to lure-in victims via YouTube.
Last year, deepfake videos of Apple CEO Tim Cook had taken over YouTube. It was in September when Apple hosted its iPhone 16 launch event. These doctored videos showed Cook promoting crypto giveaways, advertising investment ideas, and asking viewers to scan the codes on the screen to facilitate transactions.
Prior to this, artificially generated videos of Elon Musk also made it to YouTube — calling for crypto engagements.
YouTube’s response in the situation remains awaited for now.