New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter handle was “very briefly compromised”, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) informed on Sunday.
The account was secured later after the matter was escalated to the micro-blogging site.
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“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 wrote.
As the account was restored, the malicious tweet was also deleted.
PM Modi has more than 73.4 million followers on the micro-blogging site.
After PM Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked was seen trending on Twitter India.
Screenshots shared on Twitter by several users show that tweets were put out from PM Modi’s account claiming that “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,” read the now-deleted tweet.
The development has expectedly garnered several reactions. Srinivas BV, National President, Indian Youth Congress quipped: “Good Morning Modi ji, Sab Changa Si?”.
Several Twitter users raised worry over the safety of the platform in view of the Prime Minister’s account being compromised.
In a response to the incident, a 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 probe revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time”, news agency ANI reported.
Previously, in September 2020, the Twitter account that shares updates related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website and mobile app was hacked by an unknown group.
The same year, Twitter was rocked with a major Bitcoin scam as accounts of several prominent figures including Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates were compromised.
The official accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kanye West had also requested donations in the cryptocurrency.
The malicious tweet on PM Modi’s Twitter account comes as India has taken a tough stand on cryptocurrencies.
The government is likely to introduce a bill on cryptocurrencies and has expressed concerns that they may be used for luring investors with misleading claims and for funding terror activities.
PM Modi To Address Bank Deposit Insurance Programme
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to address the event on ‘Depositors First: Guaranteed Time-bound Deposit Insurance Payment up to Rs 5 Lakh’ on Sunday at noon at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi.
An official statement by the Prime Minister’s Office informed that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS Finance and RBI Governor will also be present on the occasion.
(With Agency Inputs)