Guwahati, June 12: In an incident of cybercrime committed by Pakistan-based hacking group identified as Revolution PK, the Youtube Account of TIME8, the Pioneer Digital News Channel of Assam, was last week hacked during a live stream, which replaced the news broadcast with the Pakistani flag and ran ‘Respect Holy Prophet (PBUH)’ tickers on June 9, 2022.
TIME8News is a digital news network of Assam with more than 7 million followers on different social media platforms and an average monthly video views of over 600 million.
On June 9, during a live news stream, TIME8’s transmission was disturbed and while a breaking news segment was on air, the screen was replaced with Pakistan’s flag and a hymn running in the background saying praises for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The ticker of the live screen was also replaced with ‘Respect Holy Prophet (PBUH)’ text, highlighting the recent incident.
Utpal Kanta, founder and managing editor of TIME8 Digital News Network, said, “The self-claimed Pakistani hacker group, Revolution PK, briefly hacked TIME8 YouTube channel during the live stream and replaced the news broadcast with the Pakistani flag and ran ‘Respect Holy Prophet (PBUH)’ tickers. This is an act of cyber terrorism and we condemn the incident in the strongest words and also express our concern over the matter, which relates to national security.”
He added that due to a huge follower base and immense popularity on social media platforms across the globe, the criminals might have targeted TIME8 Newsgroups for propagating their agendas.
It has also been found that hackers not only intended to illegally express their religious views on the channel but also intended to defame the channel and India as they leaked the hacked part of videos on Twitter and Facebook and Pakistani Twitter users expressed their joy by tweeting in favour of Revolution PK and lauding them for hacking our channel TIME8, Kanta further said.
Commenting on the incident, Ritushmin Sharma, editor of TIME8 Digital News Network, said, “TIME8 being in news service for the nation for years and propagating peace and harmony amongst all doesn’t endorse or encourage any such anti-national activities.”
Speaking about the incident Jyotideep Baishya, executive editor of TIME8 Digital News, said the Network has alerted concerned authorities in the matter and lodged a complaint with the Guwahati police. The matter is currently being investigated.
