PM Modi's Twitter handle 'hacked', later restored

It was not immediately known how long the personal Twitter handle of Modi, which has over 73 million followers, was compromised

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal Twitter account was hacked briefly on Sunday morning, and it was immediately restored.

"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," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet.

When the account was compromised, a tweet was sent wrongly saying that India had officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender and that the country has officially bought 500 Bitcoins and is distributing them among its residents and shared a link, asking people to hurry up. "The future has come today," the tweet said.

Immediately, many users noted that the account seems to have been hacked. Some like Youth Congress president Srinivas B V took a jibe as he tweeted while posting the screenshot of the now-deleted tweet, "Good Morning Modi Ji, Sab Changa Si?"

#Hacked began trending in Twitter handles, in India as well.

Reacting to the incident, the Twitter spokesperson said, "We have 24X7 open lines of communication with the PM's Office and our teams took necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of this activity. Our investigation has revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time."

This is not the first time that a Twitter handle associated with the prime minister has been compromised.

In September 2020, the handle of his personal website was hacked and even then tweets promoting bitcoin, seen to be linked to a scam, were posted from @narendramodi_in.

Modi's accounts are not alone in being targeted by hackers for pushing bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, as handles of several noted public personalities, including Barack Obama and Bill Gates besides those from other fields like entertainment, have been targeted in the past.

Modi has been vocal about the risks associated with cryptocurrency. Even Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman recently said that the government has no plan to recognise Bitcoin as a legal currency.

Check out DH's latest videos: