India Modi's personal Twitter handle 'briefly compromised'

NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter handle was “very briefly compromised,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a tweet early on Sunday.

The matter was escalated to Twitter and the Prime Minister’s personal Twitter handle @narendramodi was immediately secured, PMO India’s tweet said, adding any tweet shared during the brief period when the account was compromised must be ignored.

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 (@PMOIndia) December 11, 2021

A link promising a bitcoin giveaway was shared on the account.

It was not immediately known how long the personal Twitter handle of Modi, which has over 73 million followers, was compromised.

Twitter took the necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as it became aware of the activity, a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters, adding an investigation revealed no signs of any other impacted accounts at present.

A similar incident had occurred with the Twitter handle of Modi’s personal website @narendramodi_in in September 2020, with a series of tweets asking followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.