The YouTube channels of digital influencer Ranveer Allahbadia – also known as BeerBiceps – have ostensibly been hacked and many of his videos have been deleted.
Allahbadia indirectly referred to the incident on Instagram. Posting a picture of a burger, he wrote, “Celebrating my two main channels being hacked with my favourite food. Vegan burgers. Death of BeerBiceps met with Death of diet.” In another story, he uploaded a selfie with an eye mask, saying, “Is this the end of my YouTube career? Was nice knowing you all.” In a third story, he said, “No jokes, no PR. Working on next steps. Just feeling calm right now.”
Most of his interviews and podcasts were deleted and replaced with streams from events featuring Elon Musk and Donald Trump. YouTube subsequently took down the channels. “This page isn’t available,” read the message on the URL at the time of writing this report.
According to Economic Times, the hackers also employed a livestream featuring an AI-generated avatar of Elon Musk to lure unsuspecting viewers into a cryptocurrency scam. This tactic is reportedly known as a “Bitcoin doubling” scam and is a common method used in cyberattacks targeting prominent YouTube accounts.
The incident comes days after the Supreme Court of India’s YouTube channel was hacked and stripped of the videos of its previous hearings. The channel’s name and image said “Ripple”, reportedly after a US-based cryptocurrency firm, Ripple Labs. Ripple had earlier sued YouTube for failing to stop hackers from impersonating its CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Newslaundry had earlier reported on the rise of BeerBiceps’ social media influence and his interviews with BJP ministers. Watch this to know more about what he has in common with several prime-time anchors.
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