‘Took steps to secure PM Modi’s Twitter handle’

Twitter on Sunday clarified that it took necessary steps to secure the compromised handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as soon as it became aware of the hacking of the Prime Minister’s account.

“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,” the Twitter spokesperson said on Sunday. 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) said. “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 73.4 million 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.

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.