The Supreme Court of India's YouTube channel appears to have been hacked and is currently showing videos promoting XRP, a cryptocurrency developed by US-based company Ripple Labs.
The top court has been using YouTube to stream hearings of cases listed before Constitution Benches and matters involving public interest.
Recently, the hearings of the suo motu case on the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder case were streamed live on YouTube.
Videos of earlier hearings have apparently been made private by the hackers. A blank video with the title "Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION" is live at present on the hacked channel.
Pertinently, the hacking of popular video channels by scammers is rampant and Ripple had itself sued YouTube for failing to stop hackers from impersonating its CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
According to a report by The Verge, "over the past several months, scammers have created official-sounding accounts for Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Some of the accounts were apparently stolen from successful YouTubers who had their accounts hacked, giving the scammers hundreds of thousands of subscribers. From there, they could post videos offering big XRP rewards in exchange for smaller initial payments, bilking viewers who thought they were watching Ripple’s channel."
Official sources told Bar & Bench that the administration of the Supreme Court was currently looking into the hacking of the YouTube channel.