‘Damn Daniel’ Creator Hacked, Original Viral Video Has Been Deleted From The Internet

Damn Daniel! Back at it again with the…wildly offensive and racially-charged imagery alluding to the Ku Klux Klan?!?

In the latest twist to the Damn Daniel saga, the California teen who filmed the now-infamous video, Josh Holz, said his Twitter account was recently hacked. Not only did hackers tweet images of hooded figures and burning crosses, but they also deleted Holz’s Damn Daniel video, which had racked up hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes.

The offensive images have been deleted and Holz has now reclaimed his account, but the video has yet to reappear. “Got my account back,” Holz tweeted last night. “They’re [sic] are some really sick people out there and I’m sorry you guys had to see all that.” He ended with a plea — in hashtag form, of course: “#getthevideoback.”

While Holz, who was also the victim of a swatting prank last week, is no stranger to the dark underbelly of viral notoriety, the clip’s subject, Daniel Lara, has emerged from his brush with fame virtually unscathed. Lara most recently tweeted about an appearance on a local newscast later this evening.

Copies of the Damn Daniel video are still available on YouTube, where they have been viewed millions of times. But Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment about when or if the video — which is arguably the first video meme to proliferate across its native video platform — might be restored.

Damn Daniel began its ascent on February 16 and has subsequently spawned millions of mentions, according to Twitter, which spiked following tweets by sneaker brand Vans and social media star Cameron Dallas.

Check out how the trend unfolded in Twitter’s interactive graph below: