The last time popular investing app Robinhood was in the news, it was because a handful of Reddit users had banned together to successfully driving up the value of GameStop stocks on their platform. Now, Robinhood finds themselves in hot water over a photo they used of Ice Cube.
In a recent newsletter, Robinhood inserted a photo of the rapper along with the caption, “Correct yourself, before you wreck yourself,” an obvious play on words from his “Check Yo Self” track. According to TMZ, Ice Cube sought to sue the company because he claims the photo wasn’t authorized by him or his team.
Rapper Ice Cube accuses Robinhood of trademark infringement in act of ‘transparent retribution’ https://t.co/EW2UAGyru3 by @alexiskweed pic.twitter.com/NRNlvXGvWw
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) April 1, 2021
Furthermore, someone from the rapper’s team claims that Ice Cube would “never endorse Robinhood.” In a statement given to TMZ, Ice Cube’s team made it clear that he doesn’t want anything to do with the app. In fact, Ice Cube thinks Robinhood is “antithesis of everything that [he] stands for” and even named the app “horrible.”
However, Robinhood has responded to news of Ice Cube’s lawsuit, saying that they were completely within their rights to use the photo in question. “No, we didn’t use his image without permission. The image was licensed and used for non-commercial, editorial purposes in connection with a blog article.”
Check out the photo in question above.