Key Takeaways:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter account was “briefly compromised”.
- The account has now been restored, and the malicious tweets have been removed.
- Tweets put out from PM Modi’s @narendramodi account read, “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and distributing them to all residents of the country.”
- The post also included a link urging unsuspecting investors to sign up and claim their BTC share.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter account was “briefly compromised,” according to a message posted by his office on the microblogging site early Sunday morning. The same happened after the account shared a scam link promising a bitcoin giveaway.
PMO India tweeted that “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”. Later, Twitter also released a statement adding communication with the PM’s Office is underway and officials took necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of this activity.
The account has now been restored, and the malicious tweets have been removed. According to screenshots shared on Twitter by several users, tweets put out from PM Modi’s @narendramodi account read, “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC and distributed them to all residents of the country.” The post also included a link urging unsuspecting investors to sign up and claim their BTC shares.
While the hack occurred at midnight in India (around 4:00 p.m. ET), Twitter user Priya was among the many crypto enthusiasts who noticed the erroneous tweet. The tweet was quickly removed. However, by then, the #Hacked was trending in India. The screenshot of the now-deleted tweet flooded the microblogging site.
Former Karnataka Minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge said in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hacked Twitter account update, “this too was a lie, just like all his other promises.” Kharge questioned the Twitter hack, asking why PM Modi’s handle would send “a cryptic message for the draught bill on cryptocurrency.”
On December 10, Modi stated at a virtual event virtual summit hosted by US President Joe Biden that cryptocurrencies should be used to empower democracy rather than undermine it. He said that “By working together, democracies can meet the aspirations of our citizens and celebrate the democratic spirit of humanity.”
While the long-awaited Lok Sabha Winter Session, a parliamentary gathering intended to discuss the legality of cryptocurrencies in the region, did not conclude the government’s stance on crypto, hackers from unknown origins managed to take control of the prime minister’s account to declare Bitcoin as legal tender.
