In August, the crypto information web site Web3 Is Going Simply Nice printed a put up in regards to 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 web site’s administrator, Molly White, a software program engineer and one of many world’s fiercest critics of the crypto trade, that was a routine put up. For years, White has documented frauds, hacks, and scams perpetrated by influences, crypto mission founders, and web3 firms on the web site.
Then, final week, issues obtained a bit much less routine.
On October 18, an individual who didn’t determine themselves however claimed to run a “repute administration firm” that cleans up “purchasers picture over the web,” requested White to take away her X put up about FutureNet and Ziemian, “which is about my consumer.”
The particular person then provided White a bribe of $200 to take away the corresponding put up from Web3 Is Going Simply Nice, based on 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 particular person agreed, based on the response seen by TechCrunch, however however upped the value to $500.
White instructed 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 particular person didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
A couple 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 put up infringed copyright as a result of, they claimed, “this web page content material has been copied from our web site,” based on the e-mail change that White additionally shared with TechCrunch.
Woods included a hyperlink to a Blogspot web site referred to as “WP Media Information” that reveals the precise word-for-word content material from White’s put up, allegedly from August 18, 2024, a day earlier than White’s put up and purportedly written by Woods themselves.
At first look, the Blogspot web site seems to be some type of a content material farm full of dozens of articles about varied forms of information, corresponding to crypto fraud, sanctions in opposition to Russians, and COVID-19, going all the way in which again to 1995, and all authored by Woods. (TechCrunch discovered that the positioning was partly run on Rankify, a service that provides to generate “search engine marketing optimized human-like content material” utilizing AI.)
White instructed 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 put up about Ziemian.
White declined the supply.
TechCrunch was unable to establish if Woods is an actual particular person. The tackle Woods included of their e 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 is no such thing as a Michael Woods registered as a lawyer in Los Angeles, based on the California State Bar web site.
Woods didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark despatched by way of e mail and in a voicemail.
TechCrunch despatched a request for remark to an e mail tackle used to register the FutureNet official web site, however didn’t obtain a response.
White instructed TechCrunch: “Whereas I’m all the time pleased to challenge corrections if I’ve made an error, I don’t take away posts just because the individuals 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.