In a bizarre sequence of events, TikTok star Addison Rae on Friday said her account had been hacked — and then was temporarily disabled — before being restored a few hours later.
An unknown hacker (or hackers) took over Rae’s TikTok handle, which has 55.5 million followers, changing the account name to “joeandzak1” and updating her bio with the cryptic message “plugwalkjoe zak n crippin.” TikTok temporarily banned Rae’s account for community-guideline violations, according to The Tiktok Shaderoom account on Instagram.
Rae, whose full name is Addison Rae Easterling, tweeted about the incident at 8:37 p.m. ET on Aug. 14, saying, “my tiktok is hacked :(” She’s the No. 2 most-followed creator on TikTok, after Charli D’Amelio (79.5 million followers).
About three hours later, @addisonre on TikTok was restored, but without a profile pic or bio. Capitalizing on the interest in the hack, Rae later tweeted, “since i’m trending, everyone click this!!!!” with a link to a page soliciting donations for various social causes.
Addison Rae is the highest-earning TikTokker, pulling in about $5 million for the 12-month period ending in June 2020, according to Forbes estimates. The 19-year-old joined TikTok in July 2019, starting out (like many TikTok creators) by sharing dance videos set to the platform’s trending songs. After quickly gaining a large following, she left Louisiana State U. to move to Los Angeles as a full-time TikTok creator.
Addison Rae, a native of Louisiana, recently launched a podcast series exclusively for Spotify with her mom, Sheri Nicole, called “Mama Knows Best.” In addition, Rae voices the title character in 3D animated film “Spy Cat” (“Marnie’s World”), slated for September 2020 release. She’s repped by WME.
Meanwhile, the future of TikTok is uncertain: The Trump administration is forcing parent ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok by Nov. 12; the app could face a de facto ban by Sept. 20 if it isn’t sold to an American buyer.