YouTube channel of India's Supreme Court hacked, live streams replaced by crypto videos

After hackers posted crypto content, the Indian SC’s YouTube channel was taken down for recovery.

The YouTube channel of India’s Supreme Court was hacked on Friday, with unauthorised videos promoting cryptocurrency uploaded, leading the court authorities to take down the channel.

The hackers replaced live streams of public interest cases with content related to Ripple Labs’ cryptocurrency, XRP.

In an official statement, the Supreme Court confirmed that its YouTube channel had been compromised.

"This is to inform all concerned that the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India has been taken down. The services on the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India will be resumed shortly," the court said, adding that the channel will be restored once full administrative control is regained.

The incident occurred as viewers, expecting to watch live hearings on important cases, found that all previous videos had been set to private and replaced by a live video titled, "Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds to the SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP Price Prediction."

Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of Ripple Labs, a US-based company that develops the cryptocurrency XRP.

The Supreme Court's YouTube channel, which is typically used for live streaming significant cases before Constitution Benches and other matters of public interest, plays a crucial role in offering the public access to judicial proceedings.

Among the cases scheduled for hearing were a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a fixed timeline for the government to notify judge appointments recommended by the SC Collegium and a plea contesting the Allahabad High Court’s ruling on the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute.

The court has been working to restore its YouTube channel as quickly as possible and take back full control of its content.
Previously, the Supreme Court sought a report from the Karnataka High Court over controversial remarks made by Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda during a recent court hearing.

Justice Srishananda, while addressing a landlord-tenant dispute, referred to a Muslim-majority area in Bengaluru as "Pakistan" and made a misogynistic comment involving a woman lawyer.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices S Khanna, B R Gavai, S Kant, and H Roy, expressed the need for establishing clear guidelines for constitutional court judges regarding their remarks in court.

The Supreme Court bench said that when social media plays an active role in monitoring and amplifying courtroom proceedings, there is an urgency to ensure judicial commentary aligns with the decorum expected from courts of law.

Earlier, in an alarming turn of events, the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN found itself in the crosshairs of cyber attackers who not only hacked the official email IDs used by the information wing of the mission but also compromised its official YouTube channel.

After being hacked, the name, banners, and content of the YouTube channel were altered. The YouTube channel and email of the Information Wing were hacked on Friday at 4 PM US time.

The Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations has requested that all emails and videos be ignored until the email account and YouTube channel are recovered.