Singer Namewee had expected hacking of his YouTube channel

LONDON - Malaysian singer-director Namewee, whose YouTube account was hacked earlier this week, says he was not surprised as he has "offended too many people over the years".

Close to 1,000 videos on his YouTube channel, which has 3.27 million subscribers and more than 1.4 billion views, were deleted.

He regained control of the account, which he started in 2006, on Wednesday afternoon and the deleted content was restored.

His channel gained prominence in October 2021 after he released a satirical single, Fragile, with Australian singer Kimberley Chen, which led to them being blacklisted in China.

The catchy song with a pink-themed music video became a viral hit in places such as Taiwan, where they are based, and Hong Kong.

In a post on Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday (April 6), before he got his account back, the 38-year-old shared a photo of himself in London. He is currently there for work.

In his lengthy caption in Chinese, the singer, who has frequently touched on sensitive political and cultural issues in his works, wrote that he was surprised it took so many years before his YouTube account became a target for hackers.

He also vowed to get it back through any means necessary as the channel represented his "blood and sweat".

He ended his post by saying: "Justice will prevail."