A different kind of pandemic recently befell certain celebrities; the hacking pandemic. Several stars woke up to their hacked YouTube channels and some strange videos being uploaded. Due to the similarity of each post across the channels, one can conclude that a single person is behind these attacks.
The targets include Justin Bieber, Eminem, Drake, Taylor Swift, and others. They collectively have over a hundred million subscribers linked to their profiles. The posts on the YouTube account were mainly in Spanish.
The posts were primarily nonsensical videos with clickbait captions. One had convicted felon, Paco Sanz misusing a guitar and singing in Spanish. Another post had some men wearing hoodies while giving a dance performance.
Justin Bieber, Drake, And Eminem’s Youtube Channels Were Hacked
Here are my notifications of the spam video on the official youtube channel of Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and Harry Styles, and I know there are a lot more accounts that got hacked.
That's crazy, how someone can destroy your several year's hard work within a minute!@YouTube pic.twitter.com/W7FIhwH9jY— Kapil (@karntheai) April 5, 2022
Several artists fell victim to the recent YouTube hacking spree. Musicians like Justin Bieber, Drake, and Eminem all had their channels hacked on Tuesday morning. The subscribers total a whopping 145.9 million users. Several other artists were hacked too.
Some of these A-list celebrities include Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Harry Styles, Travis Scott, The Weekend, and Lil Nas X. Some of these channels had new strange videos uploaded, although they’ve been taken down.
Videos Posted On The Channels
ariana grande gonna be so confused when she wakes up pic.twitter.com/XWqWMEa43Q
— cav (@vntedix) April 5, 2022
Via the Daily Mail, the hacker posted a video on one of these popular pages titled “Justin Bieber— Free Paco Sanz (ft Will Smith, Chris Rock, Skinny flex & Los Pelaos).” Sanz is a Spanish convicted felon who pretended to be terminally ill and defrauded thousands of people. He is currently imprisoned.
The felon was shown with a guitar, holding it backward and belting out a Spanish tune in the video. Sanz’s singing was overdubbed with heavy fused beats. The post’s reference to Chris Rock and Will Smith was probably in a bid to get more clicks due to the widely publicized scandal between the two actors during the Oscars.
A second video was posted on Styles’ channel and was titled, “Daddy Yankee — SPEED IS THE BEST HACKED BY @LOSPELAOSBRO ON TWITTER.” This post provided a Twitter handle for the perpetrator, unlike the other one.
Some men had on hoodies that had “Speed” on them in the posted video. They were dancing to the adapted version of “Hit the Road Jack.” Michael Jackson’s channel wasn’t spared from the onslaught. “La Raja de Tu Falda” by Estopa was uploaded and captioned, “I like ki.ds @LOSPELAOSBRO.”
Twitter Account Claimed Responsibility For Posts
we ain't dead, give us suggestions to hack
— Los Pelaos (@lospelaosbro) April 5, 2022
According to the post on Style’s channel, @lospelaosbro was behind the hacks. Via his Twitter page, the hacker posted a flurry of tweets asking for more suggestions on the next celebrity to hack. There were also several pictures of Sanz in his media.
There isn’t a lot known about the account except that it was created in April 2022 and, due to the recent publicity, amassed over 9,700 followers. @lospelaosbro was derived from a Latin pop group.
🚨 A hacker named @lospelaosbro
hacked Ariana Grande, Drake, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, LilNasX, Michael Jackson, & more’s Youtube accountsand uploaded “In My Head” by @liltjay 😳 pic.twitter.com/dc6oslhCq6
— Lil Tjay News (@LilTjayNews) April 5, 2022
The Twitter profile was called a “s***tposting account” by Business Insider. This means that it mostly circulates content to get a reaction, whether good or bad. This was probably the reason behind the Smith and Rock mention in the YouTube post.
The videos posted by @lospelaosbro were deleted after they were uploaded. However, they stayed up for almost an hour, so subscribers wasted no time screen recording the entire show. A short clip of the Sanz video was posted by @ZyxerY on Twitter.
Fans’ Reactions To The Hacks
extremely limited supply pic.twitter.com/IoxnIAqr1q
— s 🫐 (@harrysfrand) April 5, 2022
The YouTube hack came as a surprise to several fans and subscribers mainly due to its large scale. Someone tweeted, “That’s crazy, how someone can destroy your several year’s hard work within a minute.”
Another wrote, “YouTube, what’s going on all the top artists channel hacked??” “This is so creepy like it’s 2022 and this stuff is still happening,” someone posted on Reddit.
Some other fans responded differently, mocking the situation and referring to it as a “wasted opportunity.” Someone wrote, “How are you gonna hack Taylor Swift’s YouTube channel and not release a 1989 vault track? Wasted opportunity.” “I was awake and survived Harry’s YouTube Channel being hacked,” a Styles fan posted.
