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(REUTERS): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter handle was “very briefly compromised,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet early on Sunday.
The account was secured later, after a link promising a bitcoin giveaway was shared on the account. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the Prime Minister’s personal Twitter handle @narendramodi was immediately secured, PMO India said, adding any tweet shared during the brief period must be ignored.
The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured.
In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 11, 2021
It was not immediately known how long the personal Twitter handle of Narendra Modi, which has over 73 million followers, was compromised.
Twitter took the necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as it became aware of the activity, a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters, adding an investigation revealed no signs of any other impacted accounts at present.
#Hacked began trending in India after PM Modi’s account was compromised. Several Twitter users shared screenshots of those tweets from Modi’s account, which claimed: “India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender”.
“India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country,” the now-deleted tweet said.
A similar incident had occurred with the Twitter handle of Modi’s personal website @narendramodi_in in September 2020, with a series of tweets asking followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.
