Ripple CEO Slams YouTube and X For Displaying Fake XRP Ads

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has voiced concern over the widespread circulation of deepfake scams on YouTube and the X (formerly Twitter) platform.

According to Garlinghouse, the Ripple team has reported the deepfake scam video on multiple occasions. However, he noted that both X and YouTube have refused to take action to protect unsuspecting investors.

“Completely irresponsible for @X and @YouTube to allow these to pass scrutiny as paid ads!” he added.

Yep,  you’d be surprised how often the Ripple team reports these scams, with no real recourse for innocent consumers from the platforms themselves. Completely irresponsible for @X and @YouTube to allow these to pass scrutiny as paid ads!

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 10, 2024

Garlinghouse remarked shortly after popular American journalist Joseph Weisenthal called attention to the scam. In a tweet yesterday, Weisenthal said he saw the post displayed on the X platform as a paid ad.

Fake XRP Giveaway

It bears mentioning that the video was posted on X yesterday. The video featured Garlinghouse announcing an airdrop of 100 million XRP, equivalent to $59.7 million at press time.

Per the video, the airdrop is part of Ripple’s efforts to celebrate its legal victory against the U.S. SEC.

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Scammers have plagued the XRP ecosystem with different scam tactics in recent months. The most recent antic involves a deepfake scam video featuring Garlinghouse promoting a bogus giveaway.

For context, deepfakes are synthetic media showing a digitally manipulated version of an individual’s facial expression and likeness. The rationale behind deepfake videos is to mislead the public for selfish purposes.

Will Ripple Take More Stringent Measure to Curtail Scam Ads?

XRP community members have been alerted to this malicious content on countless occasions, with Garlinghouse going a step further to distance himself from these scams.

However, the scammers have continued to promote these deepfake videos on YouTube and X. While the video is displayed as an ad on the X timeline, YouTube attaches the deepfake to crypto-related content on its platform.

With X and YouTube refusing to remove the malicious ads despite the numerous reports, Ripple could decide to take more stringent action.

Recall that in 2020, Ripple took legal action against YouTube for failing to police its platform. This came after scammers flooded the video-sharing platform with malicious ads promoting fake XRP giveaways.

A year later, Garlinghouse revealed that Ripple and YouTube agreed to collaborate to tackle these XRP-related scams. Apparently, the agreement did not yield positive results, as scammers have intensified efforts to share these fake XRP giveaways on YouTube.