In August, the crypto information web site Web3 Is Going Simply Nice printed a publish concerning the arrest of Roman Ziemian, the founding father of crypto buying and selling platform FutureNet, which is alleged to have defrauded victims out of a mixed $21 million.
For the information website’s administrator, Molly White, a software program engineer and one of many world’s fiercest critics of the crypto trade, that was a routine publish. For years, White has documented frauds, hacks, and scams perpetrated by influences, crypto venture founders, and web3 corporations on the web site.
Then, final week, issues obtained a bit much less routine.
On October 18, an individual who didn’t establish themselves however claimed to run a “repute administration firm” that cleans up “shoppers picture over the web,” requested White to take away her X publish about FutureNet and Ziemian, “which is about my shopper.”
The individual then provided White a bribe of $200 to take away the corresponding publish from Web3 Is Going Simply Nice, in line with a replica of the change that White shared with TechCrunch.
White declined the supply, arguing that there have been no errors in her posts. The unnamed individual agreed, in line with the response seen by TechCrunch, however nonetheless upped the worth to $500.
White advised TechCrunch that this “isn’t the primary time somebody has tried to intimidate me into eradicating my factual reporting, and it received’t be the primary time they succeed,” however, White added, it was the primary time somebody provided her cash to do it.
The unnamed individual didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
A number of days later, somebody figuring out as a lawyer named Michael Woods emailed White. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which governs U.S. copyright legislation, Woods alleged that White’s publish infringed copyright as a result of, they claimed, “this web page content material has been copied from our web site,” in line with the e-mail change that White additionally shared with TechCrunch.
Woods included a hyperlink to a Blogspot web site known as “WP Media Information” that reveals the precise word-for-word content material from White’s publish, allegedly from August 18, 2024, a day earlier than White’s publish and purportedly written by Woods themselves.
At first look, the Blogspot website seems to be some kind of a content material farm stuffed with dozens of articles about numerous sorts of information, corresponding to crypto fraud, sanctions towards Russians, and COVID-19, going all the way in which again to 1995, and all authored by Woods. (TechCrunch discovered that the location was partly run on Rankify, a service that provides to generate “search engine optimization optimized human-like content material” utilizing AI.)
White advised the purported lawyer that, “there are penalties for submitting false DMCA claims.” Woods responded by providing White $100 to “completely take away” the identical weblog publish about Ziemian.
White declined the supply.
TechCrunch was unable to determine if Woods is an actual particular person. The tackle Woods included of their electronic mail signature doesn’t seem to exist within the real-world, as checked by TechCrunch. Woods listed an tackle in Los Angeles that seems to be a very empty lot. And, there isn’t a Michael Woods registered as a lawyer in Los Angeles, in line with the California State Bar web site.
Woods didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark despatched by way of electronic mail and in a voicemail.
TechCrunch despatched a request for remark to an electronic mail tackle used to register the FutureNet official web site, however didn’t obtain a response.
White advised TechCrunch: “Whereas I’m all the time blissful to subject corrections if I’ve made an error, I don’t take away posts just because the folks and firms I write about don’t like what I’ve to say.”
“If I did that, I believe there wouldn’t be a lot left on my web site,” mentioned White.
