Hyderabad: As per a latest LocalCircles survey, 37 per cent of Indians surveyed say one or more individuals in their social group had a Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram account hacked in the last three years. Only 16 per cent say the affected account was restored reasonably quickly, while 68 per cent found the process extremely slow, and a further 16 per cent found it somewhat slow.
In effect, 84 per cent of those surveyed were unhappy with the time taken to resolve the problem and restore access to the account.
Rise in cyber crimes
The rapid growth of social media usage in India has been accompanied by a significant rise in account hacking, impersonation and identity theft.
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube have become essential tools for personal communication, business promotion, content creation, and financial transactions. As a result, social media accounts have evolved into valuable digital assets, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals.
Recent high-profile hacks
Several high-profile incidents over the last two years have highlighted the growing risks:
1. In June 2025, the X account of the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in New Delhi was compromised and used to post unauthorised content before being restored.
2. Last year, actor Trisha Krishnan and content creator Tanmay Bhat both disclosed that their X accounts had been hacked, with the latter’s account allegedly used to promote a cryptocurrency scam.
3. In another widely reported case, the WhatsApp account of the wife of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was hijacked through an OTP-sharing scam.
4. Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath revealed that his X account was briefly compromised via a sophisticated phishing attack, despite his being security-conscious.
5. Cases that made headlines so far this year include those of celebrities such as Ankita Lokhande, Chitrangda Singh and Vikrant Massey, while actor Jaywant Wadkar alleged that his Instagram account was misused for a cryptocurrency scam.
Such incidents underline both the growing cybersecurity risks and the difficulty users face in recovering hacked accounts.
How hackers take over digital identities
These incidents reflect a broader trend of increasingly visible consumer complaints across India.
Victims often report losing access to their social media accounts after clicking on phishing links, downloading malicious applications, sharing one-time passwords (OTPs), or falling prey to fake customer-support scams.
Once hackers gain access, they frequently change the registered email address, mobile number, password, and security settings, effectively locking the original owner out of the account.
How digital scammers impact real lives
The consequences extend far beyond the loss of a social media profile.
Scammers may use compromised accounts to impersonate victims, seek money from friends and family, spread misinformation, promote fraudulent investment schemes, or access sensitive personal information. For influencers, professionals, small businesses, and content creators, account takeovers can result in loss of followers, disruption of operations, reputational damage, and significant financial losses.
Standards of online recovery mechanisms
One of the most common complaints relates to the difficulty of getting hacked accounts restored.
Although major social media platforms offer online recovery mechanisms, users frequently describe the process as slow, complex and heavily dependent on automated systems.
Many victims struggle to reach a human representative or receive meaningful updates on their complaints. Some report spending weeks or even months attempting to recover accounts, while others eventually abandon the effort and create new profiles.
Facing inadequate grievance redressal mechanisms
Consumer forums and social media discussions reveal growing frustration with what many perceive as inadequate grievance redressal mechanisms.
Users often complain about delayed responses, lack of transparency, and difficulties in proving account ownership after hackers alter recovery information. For businesses and creators who rely on social media for customer engagement and revenue generation, prolonged account suspension or loss can have serious consequences.
What makes this gap striking is that India already has one of the world’s stricter grievance redressal frameworks for digital platforms.
Where does the law stand?
Under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, every social media intermediary must appoint a Grievance Officer, acknowledge a user complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days.
Additionally, large platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X and YouTube must appoint an India-resident Chief Compliance Officer, a 24×7 Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer. Impersonation and morphed-content complaints – precisely what a hijacked account is used for – are to be acted upon on an urgent basis.
Latest changes promise faster solutions
The February 2026 amendment further tightened these timelines, requiring acknowledgement within 7 days and resolution of specified complaints within 36 hours.
Where a platform fails to resolve a complaint, an aggrieved user can appeal to a Government-constituted Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC), whose decisions are binding on the platform and are intended to be delivered within 30 days.
Are the customers happy with support system?
Yet the survey findings indicate a sharp disconnect between these entitlements and the lived experience of victims
A key reason is that the prescribed timelines were designed primarily for content takedown, whereas account recovery is largely routed through automated, self-service flows that demand access to the very email, phone number or account that the hacker has already altered – leaving the locked-out user with no quick, human, time-bound channel to fall back on.
Rise of new age online risks
The rise of Artificial Intelligence and deepfake technology has further increased risks. Cybercriminals can now create convincing fake profiles, images, videos, and messages, making impersonation scams harder to identify and increasing the potential for fraud and identity theft.
Recognising the growing threat, Indian authorities have strengthened cybercrime reporting mechanisms through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and the cybercrime helpline 1930.
However, consumer advocates argue that social media platforms must do more to secure accounts, improve recovery systems, and ensure faster resolution of complaints. As social media accounts increasingly function as digital identities, protecting them and restoring them quickly when compromised has become an important consumer rights issue in India’s digital economy.
Only 16% of Indians say the hacked account of a close contact was restored quickly
Cyber experts note that most people do not immediately realise that their Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram account has been hacked. The experience of many victims, shared on social media, also indicates that getting the problem resolved and the account restored is far from easy.
The survey therefore asked, “How did your close contacts (family, friends, colleagues, neighbours) whose Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram account got hacked in the last 3 years find a resolution to the issue with these platforms?” This question drew 10,608 responses: 68% said “extremely slow”; 16% said “somewhat slow”; and only 16% said it was “reasonably quick”.
In other words, while 16 per cent of Indians surveyed say a hacked close contact’s account was restored reasonably quickly, 68 per cent found the process extremely slow.
Conclusion
Given the rise in social media account hacking, impersonation fraud, and AI-generated deepfakes, the Government has moved to strengthen regulations for digital platforms, emphasising quicker grievance redressal and greater accountability.
As deepfakes have become a serious concern, authorities have directed social media companies to act swiftly against AI-generated misinformation, impersonation, and harmful content.
However, much more needs to be done, as consumer advocates rightly point out that social media accounts have become digital identities and thus users deserve stronger security, faster account recovery, transparent complaint-handling systems, and effective safeguards against fraud, identity theft, and online abuse.
Survey Demographics
The survey received nearly 22,000 responses from citizens located across 309 districts of India. As much as 62 per cent of respondents were men and 38 per cent were women; 43 per cent were from tier 1 districts, 31 per cent from tier 2, and 26 per cent from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
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