Wozniak’s YouTube Case Success May Cue Blue Check Liability (1)

A California court will weigh whether social media platforms’ verification badges are platform-created speech that could trigger liability for companies like Google’s YouTube and X over harmful content created by others.

California’s Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled in a March 15 published opinion that YouTube isn’t responsible for a hoax that altered footage of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak and other tech icons to sell a fake Bitcoin giveaway—with one potential exception.

YouTube’s verification badges, present on content creators’ channels where the hoax ads appeared, might count as YouTube’s speech and could be enough to put the tech company ...