If there’s one thing we’ve discovered about the world wide web over the last two decades, it’s that the internet remembers everything and forgets nothing. Every photo, tweet, and status post, even those of Timothee Chalamet, the star of Dune, can be saved indefinitely. After months of speculation that an eleven-year-Youtube old’s channel belonged to none other than little catch himself, Timothee Chalamet acknowledged this week that he is the anonymous owner of the ModdedControler 360 channel on YouTube.
Internet sleuths have long used the internet to solve some of the world’s most vexing mysteries. Luka Magnotta, the brutal Canadian murderer depicted in the Netflix docu-series Don’t F*** With Cats, may still be on the streets if not for the diligent internet research done by web users such as Baudi Morvan and John Green. However, not all cyber sleuths are out to save the day and catch the bad guys. Some people are just interested in exposing others or uncovering unknown material from a religious angle, as was the case with Timothee Chalamet’s revealed hidden YouTube channel. Chalamet admits to the channel in the video below.
The mystery surrounding Timothee Chalamet’s YouTube account arose in 2018 when a fan group named ChalametUniverse discovered that the artist had liked a video from the channel. The YouTube channel, which was launched in 2010, only had three videos, all of which featured a faceless kid flaunting his homemade Xbox 360 controllers, which could be purchased for $10. The little boy’s voice in the clips was similar to Timothee Chalamet’s voice at the time, which could be heard in his appearances on Law and Order, according to the Instagram fan page that disclosed the hypothesis. ChalametUniverse also highlighted a scar on the boy’s left ring finger in the video, which appeared to match Chalamet’s own scar.
The tale resurfaced recently, when Vice published a post delving into the little enigma, revealing that Chalamet was the true owner of ModdedControler 360. Vice was able to search for clues squirreled away in Timothee Chalamet’s social media record to prove he was the founder of the YouTube channel with the help of Aric Toller, principal investigator for Bellingcat — an independent international collective of researchers, investigators, and citizen journalists who use open source and social media investigation to analyse a range of subjects — with the help of Aric Toller, lead researcher for Bellingcat — an independent and impartial collective of researchers, investigators, and The research team looked at an earlier photo of Chalamet that he shared on his verified Instagram account on July 22.