Supreme Court's YouTube Channel Restored After Getting Hacked

The YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India has been resumed, the apex court said in a notice issued on Friday, hours after it was hacked by miscreants who uploaded a video related to a digital currency.

"This is to inform all concerned that the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India is live and up. The services on the YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India have been resumed," stated a notice issued by Hargurvarinder Singh Jaggi, the top court's registrar (technology).

Before the channel was resumed, it was temporarily taken down following the hack.

Earlier in the day, the hackers had uploaded a video on the channel that promoted XRP, a cryptocurrency developed by the US-based Ripple Labs. The video was blank, with the title "Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION".

The previous videos on the channel related to court proceedings were apparently made private by the hackers.

Notably, the channel is used by the Supreme Court to livestream the proceedings of the cases involving public interest, as well as those cases that are heard by its constitutional benches.

The court had recently live-streamed the hearings of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder case, which was taken up suo moto by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.

The thumbnail of the video that was uploaded by the hackers on the YouTube channel included an image of Brad Garlinghouse, the chief executive officer of Ripple.

In April 2020, Ripple had sued YouTube, which is an arm of Alphabet Inc., for its “inexplicable failure” to prevent scammers from impersonating the company's CEO.

The blockchain firm accused YouTube of taking inadequate measures to stop scamsters who allegedly impersonated Garlinghouse to lure viewers to send XRP worth thousands of dollars as "giveaways.".

"For every scam, giveaway, or fake conspiracy that is taken down, multiple more pop up nearly immediately... YouTube and other big technology and social media platforms must be held accountable for not implementing sufficient processes for fighting these scams," Ripple had then reportedly stated in a blog post.