Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the company has ended its lawsuit against YouTube. Which alleged that the social media platform profited off fake XRP giveaways.
The lawsuit was filed last April. Garlinghouse announced on Twitter at the time that Ripple was suing YouTube for failing to stop the scams.
“Last year, @Ripple and I sued @YouTube for failing to enforce its own policies. By allowing fake accounts (impersonating my/Ripple’s verified accounts) to conduct XRP giveaway scams. We’ve now come to a resolution to work together to prevent, detect and take down these scams.”
The scams relied on spear-phishing attacks. Which is when a hacker takes over a user’s account and delete its information.
The account would then be set up to look like a cryptocurrency figure such as Garlinghouse himself. A fake XRP giveaway was launched, which obtained sums between 5,000 and 1,000,000 XRP from users. On the promise that they’d make a profit of five times the original amount.
Garlinghouse claimed that YouTube knowingly profited from these scams. As advertisements continued to run on the videos in question.
Garlinghouse recently noted that progress was being made. But that social media sites still had a responsibility to tighten up their platforms.
“Social platforms are starting to acknowledge their role in allowing crypto scams to persist. And recognize the need to be part of the solution.
“Some like @xrpforensics are helping detect/track stolen funds. But platforms need to lead the charge or it’s still just whack-a-mole.”
Details regarding the settlement between Ripple and YouTube remain confidential.
Ripple still under investigation by SEC
Despite reaching a settlement with YouTube, Ripple remains under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an alleged violation of the securities act. The SEC claims Ripple failed to register XRP prior to completing $1.38 billion worth of sales to investors.
