Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter account was "briefly compromised" in the early hours on Sunday, 12 December, his office said after someone posted a Bitcoin giveaway link from it.
"The Twitter handle of PM @Narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured," PMO India wrote it in a tweet.
During the said duration of the account being hacked, a URL was shared on the PM's personal account, along with a Tweet that read:
"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.
As per screenshots that are since doing the rounds on social media, the account had tweeted twice about Bitcoin.
The tweets were subsequently taken down, but not before Twitter was flooded with reactions of shock and disbelief, with the hashtag 'Hacked' trending on social media.
Previously...
Previously, in September 2020, the Twitter account of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal website and mobile app was reported to have been hacked.
The account, narendramodi_in, reportedly had tweets asking people "to donate generously to PM National Relief Fund for COVID-19". "Now India begin with crypto currency, Kindly Donate Bitcoin...," multiple tweets read.
"Yes this account is hacked by John Wick. We have not hacked Paytm Mall," another tweet read.
The posts were subsequently deleted.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)