In August, crypto information website Web3 Is Going Simply Nice printed a put up concerning the arrest of Roman Ziemian, the founding father of crypto buying and selling platform FutureNet, which allegedly defrauded victims of a mixed $21 million.
It was a routine put up for information web site administrator Molly White, a software program engineer and one of many world's fiercest critics of the crypto business. For years, White has been documenting scams, hacks, and scams on the internet by influencers, crypto venture founders, and web3 corporations.
Then, final week, issues bought rather less routine.
On Oct. 18, an individual who didn’t establish himself however claimed to run a “popularity administration firm” that cleans up “shoppers' picture over the Web” requested White to take away his X put up about FutureNet and Ziemian, “which is about my shopper . .”
That particular person then provided White a $200 bribe to take away the corresponding put up from Web3 Is Going Simply Nice, in response to a duplicate of the alternate White shared with fromcrypto.
White declined the provide, saying there have been no errors in her contributions. The unnamed particular person agreed, in response to a response seen by fromcrypto, however nonetheless raised the value to $500.
White instructed fromcrypto that this “isn't the primary time somebody has tried to intimidate me into eradicating my factual reporting, and it gained't be the primary time they've succeeded,” however White added it was the primary time somebody provided her cash to it.
The unnamed particular person didn’t reply to fromcrypto's request for remark.
A number of days later, somebody figuring out himself as a lawyer named Michael Woods emailed White. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which governs U.S. copyright regulation, the Woods argued that White's put up violated copyright as a result of, they claimed, “the content material of this web page was copied from our web site,” in response to an electronic mail alternate that White additionally shared with fromcrypto.
Woods included a hyperlink to a Blogspot web site known as “WP Media Information” that exhibits the precise content material from White's put up, allegedly dated August 18, 2024, the day earlier than White's put up and allegedly written by Woods himself.
At first look, Blogspot seems to be a content material farm of types, crammed with dozens of articles on numerous forms of information, resembling crypto fraud, Russian sanctions, and COVID-19, courting again to 1995, all written by Woods. (fromcrypto discovered that the positioning was partially powered by Rankify, a service that gives AI-powered technology of “Web optimization-optimized, human-like content material.”
White instructed the alleged 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 provide.
fromcrypto was unable to find out whether or not Woods is an actual particular person. The handle that Woods included of their electronic mail signature apparently doesn't exist in the true world, in response to fromcrypto. Woods listed an handle in Los Angeles that seems to be fully empty. And in response to the California State Bar web site, there isn’t a Michael Woods registered as an lawyer in Los Angeles.
Woods didn’t reply to fromcrypto's electronic mail and voicemail requests for remark.
fromcrypto despatched a request for remark to the e-mail handle used to register FutureNet's official website, however didn’t obtain a response.
White instructed fromcrypto, “Whereas I'm at all times completely satisfied to be corrected if I've made a mistake, I don't take away posts just because the folks and firms I write about don't like what I'm saying.”
“If I did, I think there wouldn't be a lot left on my website,” White mentioned.
