X sues its own users for running a fake bitcoin news bot farm

X is suing two men for allegedly building a network of fake bitcoin news accounts to farm payouts from X’s own creator fund.

The lawsuit names Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa as the alleged masterminds behind the scheme, with law firm Lewis Silkin LLP representing the platform. At stake is at least 207,000 pounds ($277,000) in disputed creator-fund payouts. Costs for further damages from investigations and remediation are still unquantified.

The lawsuit named nine accounts as part of the alleged network: @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, @PolyBackTest, @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin and @Laserlump. These accounts circulated fake “breaking” news headlines that often matched word for word and appeared on X just seconds apart.

Most of these posts made unsubstantiated, unverified claims involving big players in finance to draw mass attention, such as claiming Goldman Sachs’ CEO was pushing a crypto bill or saying Citibank had bought $12.6 million in bitcoin.

The lawsuit further alleges that defendants operated accounts that repeatedly liked, replied to, and reposted these posts to create a facade of false engagement.