Political News: PM Modi’s Twitter handle ‘very briefly’ compromised, secured later

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter handle was “very briefly compromised” and was secured later after the matter was escalated to the micro-blogging site, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) informed on Sunday.

“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 tweeted.

The account has now been restored and the malicious tweets have been deleted. PM Modi has over 73.4M followers on the micro-blogging site.

After PM Modi’s account was compromised, #Hacked began trending in India.

As per the screenshots shared on Twitter by several users, tweets were put out from PM Modi’s account claiming “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.

Users flooded the micro-blogging site with the screenshot of the now-deleted tweet.

“Good Morning Modi ji, Sab Changa Si?,” tweeted Srinivas BV, National President, Indian Youth Congress.

Political activist Tehseen Poonawalla also took to Twitter and said, “Was the Twitter account of the Hon’ble PM shri #NarendraModi ji hacked? And promise of #Bitcoin !!”

Another Twitter user wrote, “#PMmodi #modi account #hacked, please do not click on the link. It’s a scam. … Even PM’s account is not safe. How safe will be Indian social media from hackers, manipulators, scammers and foreign influence? #Twitter verified security compromised?”

Earlier, in September 2020, the Twitter account, which updates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website and mobile app was hacked by an unknown group.