Steve Wozniak Case Cues Test of Internet Liability Shield Limit

A panel of California state justices probed the limits of a federal law that shields online platforms from lawsuits Tuesday, as Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak argued that YouTube negligently failed to protect its users from scammers that doctored footage of him and other tech icons to sell a fake Bitcoin giveaway.

At the heart of the debate are YouTube’s verification badges, which appear as check marks next to a user’s name to signal that the user is who they say they are. Wozniak’s attorney argued before a panel of justices in California’s Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal that YouTube ...