Supreme Court's YouTube channel taken down after hacking: ‘Services will be resumed…’

The official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India was taken down on Friday afternoon after a hacking bid. The platform had begun showing videos promoting a cryptocurrency developed by US-based company Ripple Labs earlier in the day.

“This is to inform all concerned that the YouTube channel of Supreme Court of India has been taken down. The services on YouTube channel of Supreme Court of India will be resumed shortly,” the apex court said.

Earlier reports indicated that the Court's Registry has taken cognisance of the breach and efforts remain underway to recover the channel. The entire page — with more than 2 lakh subscribers — was deleted on Friday afternoon and currently leads to an unavailability message. 

The Supreme Court has been using YouTube to stream live hearings of cases listed before constitution benches and matters involving public interest since 2018. The initiative had begun in the wake of an unanimous verdict under former Chief Justice UU Lalit. 

The scheduled stream was however interrupted on Friday afternoon by several cryptocurrency videos featuring an US-based company called Ripple. The channel also displayed a live blank video titled 'Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION'. The latter took over the screen while the Court was broadcasting Kolkata rape-murder suo motu case.

The developments came even as the apex court heard several key cases on Friday — including a PIL seeking a fixed time limit for the Centre to notify the appointment of judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium. The rape and murder of a Kolkata doctor and then Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute were also part of courtroom discussions. The Supreme Court also upheld an order of the Delhi High Court which directed low-cost airline SpiceJet to ground three aircraft engines for defaulting on payments to lessors.

(With inputs from agencies)