James Charles’ Twitter account was hacked on Saturday; the account was eventually shut down and Charles lost his verified status. Charles’ account has since been restored.
The hacked account tweeted a number of obscene statements early on Saturday, which many people received as push notifications. Thanks to user screenshots, one can see that the hacker or hackers changed Charles’ Twitter handle several times, which was what led to his losing a verified status.
Some of the handles that were used were @Jamesch85361786 and @ChucklingRN. Many of the tweets that came from the subsequent handles were flat out inappropriate, others bordering on racist.
One tweet read, “Going to japan with @loganpaul and find some dead [n-words]”
Another tweet read, “I like to f*ck cats w @ShaneDawson”
Here’s what you need to know:
Charles’ Hack Comes a Day After Shane Dawson’s Twitter Hack
Just yesterday, influencer and YouTube personality Shane Dawson endured a similar hack into his Twitter account, which led to a flood of inappropriate tweets.
One of those tweets by Dawson’s hackers explicitly attacked Charles, calling him a homophobic slur, while another tweet claimed “Nazi Germany did nothing wrong,” according to Metro UK.
Many on Twitter have attributed both Charles’ and Dawson’s hacked Twitter accounts to a group called the “Chuckling Squad.” In fact, one user even went out of their way to ask the Chuckling Squad to hack influencer Jeffree Star’s account.
One fan wrote of the chaos, “I wonder if James Charles knows he’s been hacked or whether he’s fast asleep and might wake up to all kinds of drama just curious tbh”
Throughout the hack, Charles’ account referenced several nods to the Chuckling Squad. The hacked account retweeted a tweet that said, “Even If I Go Jail I’ll Always Be Chuckling Till I Die #CHUCKLINGHELLA”
Another tweet by the hacked account read, “Yes James Charles is a huge [homophobic slur] ~Chuckling Squad”
Still another read, “Gonna post James nudes from his iCloud when @OwenBDK reaches 4k followers”
As for who “OwenBDK” is, the account is nondescript, and includes a tweet posted during the same period of time that Charles’ account was hacked. The tweet reads, “James Charles got some nice booty.”
Little is known about the Chuckling Squad, only that the name has been associated with several prominent hacks in the last few weeks.
One fan wrote, “I would find the fact that James Charles’ twitter got hacked quite funny, but it looks like the person who did it is also the same person that just hacked Etika’s sooooo f*ck em.”
One explanation for all of the recent Twitter hacks was offered up by YouTuber Keemstar, who tweeted, “Yeah @ATT is looking at a major lawsuit for allowing hackers to call in and SIM card switch over big celebrity account! @KingBach, @AmandaCerny, @Etika, @shanedawson & now @jamescharles all hacked due to ATT human error ! New #DramaAlert today explaining!”
Basically, Keemstar is alleging that the recent hacks of Dawson, Etika, and now Charles (among others) have been caused by unauthorized SIM card switches. To be clear, none of the people with hacked accounts have yet to make any sort of claim regarding hacked SIM cards. What’s more, AT&T has not acknowledged any role or culpability in the hack.
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