Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was hacked briefly on Sunday with a tweet declaring that India has officially adopted bitcoin as a legal tender. The tweet went further to state that the cryptocurrency would be distributed to all Indian citizens.
Reports also have it that the prime minister’s account was quickly secured and the tweet deleted.
The Prime Minister’s Office also disclosed that immediate action has been taken after the matter was reported to Twitter. It 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.”
This is the second time the Indian Prime Minister’s account with more than 73 million followers (the most of any world leader) has been compromised.
In 2020, his account was compromised with messages sent out to mobilize funds for a fake Covid relief fund.
The weird bitcoin tweet by hackers comes as India is planning to clamp down on virile cryptocurrency trade in the country. A new law is likely to be made against it this month.
Mr. Modi also has expressed reservations about cryptocurrency trade in India as he believes that it could spoil the youths of the country. In March, the country had also set out to ban cryptocurrency ownership by proposing a law banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone trading in the country, or even holding such digital assets.
