Sansad TV’s YouTube channel, which broadcasts live Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings, was temporarily halted after it was hacked around 1 am on Tuesday. It was later restored. The name of the channel was also changed to Ethereum ( a crypto currency) by the hackers.
In a statement, Sansad TV said that "YouTube channel of Sansad TV got compromised due to unauthorised activities by some scamsters on February 15 (Tuesday 1 am), including live streaming on this channel."
This is weeks after the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s Twitter handle was briefly hacked with Elon Musk's name and Narendra Modi's Twitter account was hacked with Bitcoin posts. The You Tube channel of Sansad TV broadcasts the same feed that runs on normal Lok Sabha TV broadcast that is telecast through dish tv or cable tv.
“ However, Sansad TV's Social Media Team promptly worked on it and got the channel restored by 3.45 am. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the nodal agency for responding to cyber security incidents in India, also reported the above incident and alerted Sansad TV,” the statement read. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-ln), the nodal agency for responding to cyber security incidents in India, also reported the incident and had alerted Sansad TV, the statement noted.
"However, later on, YouTube has started fixing the security threats permanently and it shall be restored ASAP," it said. Screenshots of Sansad TV's YouTube account shared on social media showed message that "This account has been terminated for violating YouTube's community guidelines". Earlier in the day, the Sansad TV YouTube account showed a 404 error, with a message which said that “This page isn’t available. Sorry about that. Try searching for something else”.
In September 2021, Sansad TV, a news channel combining the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha TV, was launched at a function presided over by Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Speaker Om Birla. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the channel as the new voice of Parliament and that the channel adds another important chapter to the parliamentary system.