Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was hacked today. His office said that his account has been “very briefly compromised”, when a tweet was made from the official Twitter account of the Indian Prime Minister, which said that his country had adopted Bitcoin and would be distributing the cryptocurrency.
“The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured,” the Indian PM’s office said in a tweet on Sunday.
“In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored,” officials added.
A lot of Twitter users were seen sharing the screenshots of the tweet which was made from the Indian Prime Minister’s personal account, @narendramodi, when it was hacked, said News-18.
The screenshot read: “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC” and would be “distributing them to all residents of the country.”
The tweet was later deleted. Along with the tweet, a possible scam link was also attached.
Narendra Modi has more than 70 million followers on Twitter, among the most of any world leader.
In India, Bitcoin isn’t considered as a legal tender.
El Salvador became the first country worldwide, in September, to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender and last month, the country’s president Nayib Bulele said he has been planning to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City” which has been funded initially by Bitcoin-backed bonds.
India has been recently getting news related to the idea of a ban of crypto. Last month, Modi’s government said that they are planning to introduce a bill that would “ban all private cryptocurrencies in India.” But the description of the bill also said that they will allow for “certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.”
There’s a lot of space for interpretation in that phrasing. Because the measure doesn’t define “private” cryptocurrencies, it’s unclear whether it includes the world’s most widely traded coins, such as bitcoin and ethereum. The Indian finance ministry did not react to CNN Business’s concerns concerning the bill passed last month. In the current legislative session, it has yet to be presented.
