Politics

Indian prime minister’s Twitter handle hacked for second time

New Delhi, Dec 12 (EFE).- The personal Twitter handle of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “briefly compromised” early on Sunday and a message promising to give away virtual currency bitcoin was posted from it, in the second hacking attack of this kind against the leader.

“The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured,” the prime minister’s office tweeted later on Sunday.

“In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored,” it added.

Although the prime minister’s office did not reveal the content of the message posted by the hackers in the early hours of Sunday, many social media users including political leaders and activists published screenshots of the post.

Local media outlets said that the message, posted on Modi’s personal handle which has 73.4 million followers, falsely claimed that India had officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender and was going to give away hundreds of bitcoins, along with sharing a blog link.

Currently the future of cryptocurrency is unclear in India, with a bill to regulate its trade pending in the parliament.

The government intends to establish a legal framework for the creation of a digital currency issued by the country’s central bank, while limiting the use of private cryptocurrencies.

A similar incident took place in September 2020, when Modi’s account linked with his website and a mobile phone application were hacked and used to post several messages asking for cryptocurrency donations for a supposed charity fund.

In July 2020, the Twitter handles of then United States’ president Barack Obama and billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk had been hacked along with many others, with scamsters offering bitcoin payments in their messages. EFE

daa/ia

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