Wode Maya had a thriving YouTube account with over 1.2 million followers and over 900 postings until the evening of February 23, 2023.
He is known as one of the continent’s most popular YouTubers, releasing cross-continental video aimed at promoting a favourable image of Africa and Africans.
The hackers then struck.
His page went blank at first, and his name was changed from “Wode Maya” to “Microstrategy.”
It wasn’t long until the peculiar activity on the channel indicated that it had been hacked.
The new proprietors began a series of live streams in order to raise funds for a cryptocurrency scheme. At the time of GhanaWeb’s last check, five similar streams were active.
Meanwhile, all of Wode Maya’s films had vanished from the page, despite the fact that the page metadata had stayed unchanged – page founded in 2013 with over 193 million views.
A huge online movement began almost immediately, with individuals, particularly on Twitter, tagging YouTube and YouTube Support in order to assist Wode Maya in reclaiming his account.
After a few hours, it was discovered that the channel had been completely shut off. When the previous links are clicked, the following notice is displayed: “The video is not available. This film is for personal use only.”
Also, a search for the page on YouTube yields no results.
Berthold Winkler, the vlogger’s real name, has yet to publicly remark on the development.
