Ariana Grande’s YouTube channel hacked by IShowSpeed fan
YouTube: IShowSpeed / NetflixA fan of popular YouTuber IShowSpeed has taken over Ariana Grande and Harry Styles’ YouTube accounts in a series of hacks that no one saw coming.
YouTube star IShowSpeed is known for his occasional on-stream hijinks, but one of his fans took things to the next level in a widespread hack that saw multiple high-profile celebrities’ YouTube accounts compromised.
On April 5, 2022, fans across social media noticed that their favorite artists’ YouTube channels were uploading some questionable content.
These artists included names like Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X, Travis Scott, Justin Bieber, and even the late Michael Jackson.
.@ArianaGrande’s official channel on YouTube has been hacked. pic.twitter.com/1mfrEFyi8K
— . (@chartarianadata) April 5, 2022
Many of the clips uploaded to these artists’ profiles included strange videos with captions that alluded to a hack from someone named ‘LOSPELAOSBRO’ on Twitter.
The videos ranged from a 51-year-old Spaniard named Paco Sanz singing an off-key song while playing a guitar, to most notably, a re-upload of IShowSpeed’s music video for his song ‘Shake.’
The YouTuber’s music video has garnered over 65 million views at the time of writing — just four months after being uploaded in November 2021.
The hacker also included the hashtag #FreePacoSanz in the videos’ descriptions, along with the caption: “We will not stop until the political prisoner Paco Sanz is released.”
Paco Sanz, also known as the “man with 2,000 tumors,” is a 51-year-old former security guard who claimed he had Cowden Syndrome — a condition characterized by the presence of many non-cancerous tumors.
However, it was reported that Sanz had allegedly lied about the severity of his condition. He received a two-year jail sentence for defrauding donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for funds to cure his Cowden Syndrome.
ATTENTION: Major artists are currently being hacked by @lospelaosbro 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
so far it looks like Juice WRLD, Eminem, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Travis Scott, Trippie Redd, Michael Jackson, The Weeknd, and even more artist's YouTube channels have been hacked! pic.twitter.com/UtL6yiKxRF— Where's the Jam? (@wheresthejam9) April 5, 2022
Luckily, the artists’ YouTube channels affected by the hack are now back in order, with all the offending videos removed. IShowSpeed has made no comment on the odd situation at the time of writing.
This isn’t the first giant hack to affect a swath of celebrities, by far; back in September 2019, a number of celebrities and influencers’ Twitter accounts were compromised by a group of hackers who even infiltrated the profile of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.