The channel of the German YouTuber HandOfBlood was hacked and instead of gaming content, it showed news about Elon Musk, Twitter, and Bitcoin. Now he is completely unreachable. Others are taking advantage of the situation.
Update from January 10: The YouTube channel of HandOfBlood is now back online and reachable. The channel had briefly disappeared and was inaccessible, as HandOfBlood noted on Twitter.
In the following article, we explain what has happened so far.
Who is it about?
- HandOfBlood, also known as Hänno, is a well-known German YouTuber and his real name is Maximilian Knabe.
- The 30-year-old Berliner is one of the 9 biggest German gaming YouTubers, has 2.5 million subscribers on his main channel, and was awarded as Germany’s “Player of the Year” in 2022.
- Hänno is also the founder of the e-sports team Eintracht Spandau, which is active in League of Legends .
In the video, we explain Eintracht Spandau in 4 minutes:
Hack takes control of HandOfBlood
What kind of hack was that? As numerous users reported on Twitter, the main channel of Hänno is said to have been hacked on YouTube. Moreover, some warned against clicking on links associated with the hack (via Twitter).
In general, on January 7, numerous screenshots and clips of the channel appeared, which now showed news about Elon Musk, Twitter, Tesla, and Bitcoin instead of the usual Hänno videos. Additionally, the channel was renamed by the perpetrators to “Tesla Twitter”.
As a result of the hack, HandOfBlood’s videos were also listed as “unlisted” on YouTube. Therefore, they did not appear in the channel’s video list, but could still be found and watched via playlists and links.
What is the current status? HandOfBlood’s channel has been restored to normal and no longer carries the name “Tesla Twitter”. Also, the videos can now be watched as usual.
However, since the hack, there have been some strange responses from a gaming browser to HandOfBlood’s tweets:
Hackers struck multiple times
Who else got hit? The hack of HandOfBlood is not the first in recent weeks. About a month ago, the YouTube channel “BullshitTV” was also hacked. At that time, it was renamed to “Tesla” (via reddit).
Additionally, a few days ago, the Dortmund Jean Pierre Kraemer/ JP Performance was also hacked (via ruhrnachrichten.de). Jean Pierre Kraemer is known as a tuner and a former member of the TV series “Die PS Profis”. His YouTube channel has 2.28 million subscribers.
Overall, the start of the year 2023 seems to be quite difficult for many YouTubers. While HandOfBlood and JP are fighting for their channel, others are struggling with the platform’s new monetization policies and are worried about their income.
A wrong word is currently costing people on YouTube their entire income: “I am devastated”
