India PM Narendra Modi’s Twitter account hacked
- Tweet shared during brief period falsely said India had officially adopted Bitcoin as the legal tender
- Prime Minister’s Office said the Modi account, which has over 73 million followers, has been secured
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter account was hacked, his office said.
The account using the handle @narendramodi has since been restored after the brief incident, it added.
“The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet early Sunday. “In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored.”
It was not immediately known how long the personal Twitter handle of Modi, which has over 73 million followers, was compromised.
A Twitter spokesperson told Reuters that an investigation revealed no signs of any other impacted accounts at present.
During the time the account was compromised, a tweet was sent falsely saying that India had officially adopted Bitcoin as the legal tender, and that the country has bought the digital currency which it would distribute to citizens.
In late November, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government had no proposal to recognise Bitcoin as a currency in the country.
