Brave Software—Brave Rewards system solicited tips for content creators who never enrolled in the program
In December 2018, YouTuber Tom Scott publicly revealed that Brave's Rewards system allowed users to tip BAT tokens to his channel despite him never signing up for or consenting to the program. Brave had not paid him the tipped money and did not clearly indicate to users that creators were not enrolled, raising concerns about misleading users and unauthorized use of creators' identities for fundraising.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Corporate Transparency | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.214 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.57)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
Tom Scott revealed Brave solicited tips for his channel without his consent
YouTuber Tom Scott publicly called out Brave for allowing users to tip BAT tokens to his channel despite him never enrolling in Brave Rewards. He noted Brave had not paid him the funds and did not clearly show users he was not a participant in the program.