File photo of Supreme Court of India
| Photo Credit: Subramanium S.

A YouTube channel under the Indian Supreme Court name was hacked on Friday (September 20, 2024), as the URL re-directed users to a page that showed media promoting a cryptocurrency developed by the U.S.-based company Ripple Labs.

A blank video with the title “Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC’s $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION” was live on the hacked channel, which had the URL www.youtube.com/@supremecourtofindia5950.

A screenshot shows the hacked channel being used to stream fraudulent XRP content
| Photo Credit:
Image sourced from YouTube and compiled on Canva by The Hindu

As of Friday, XRP was the seventh biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, per CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency that aims to facilitate cross-border transactions and cut out the additional fees was involved in a multi-year court case in the U.S. over whether it should be classified as unregistered securities, versus a commodity.

Supporters of a cryptocurrency sometimes attempt to hack notable handles or internet accounts in order to promote the asset, pump its price, or raise awareness about it.

Many of the shared media or links from these hacks are fraudulent in nature, and users should avoid interacting with them. This is not the first time Ripple or XRP supporters have hacked a prominent handle, as Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX was similarly affected a few years ago.

The apex court has been using YouTube to stream live hearings of cases listed before constitution benches, and matters involving public interest.

In a unanimous decision taken by the recent full court meeting headed by then CJI U.U. Lalit, the top court decided to live-stream proceedings of all constitution bench hearings, following a path-breaking verdict on the matter in 2018.

The affected YouTube page later appeared to have been taken down.

Screenshot of the affected page
| Photo Credit:
https://www.youtube.com/@supremecourtofindia5950