Following a series of targeted attacks on the Vevo-hosted Youtube videos of artists like Drake, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez, two hackers have been arrested.
In April, music video thumbnails for these artists were replaced by images of masked people pointing guns. The hackers identified themselves as Kuroi’sh and Prosox who wrote “Free Palestine” below some of their targeted videos of high-performing artists like Drake.
The hackers were also responsible for deleting the record breaking music video for ‘Despacito’ from Youtube. Only days after making history by becoming the first video to reach 5 billion views, the video disappeared from the site.
This is the first time I get to see a @YouTube account compromised ( @LuisFonsi's) and a title changed on his 5-billion-views' hit, "#Despacito". pic.twitter.com/4UHUf02Ty2
— Gianluca Varisco (@gvarisco) April 10, 2018
As Pitchfork report, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr has revealed that two French citizens have been arrested and charged for the hackings by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
The two men are aged 18 and have been charged with fraudulent modification, deletion, and extraction of data from an automated data processing system.
Meanwhile, Vevo have announced they are set to close their website and mobile apps.
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In an announcement on the company blog, it was explained that Vevo’s objective “is to grow the commercial and promotional value of music videos, fostering deep connections between artists and fans”. In order to “be most effective in achieving those goals”, the post said the company would “phase out elements of our owned and operated platforms”.
Vevo also host an annual stage at The Great Escape festival in Brighton. This year’s line-up included Pale Waves and ALMA.