HBO accidentally posted the upcoming Game of Thrones episode online

HBO accidentally posted the upcoming episode of Game of Thrones four days early. For "a brief time" Tuesday, the sixth episode of Season 7, slated to air Sunday, was available online in Spain and in Nordic countries, HBO acknowledged in a statement. Of course, the episode was promptly circulated on Reddit and posted on YouTube and other streaming services before HBO quickly took it down.

This time, the slip up was HBO's fault — not leakers'. In a statement, HBO said that the upcoming Game of Thrones episode was "accidentally posted" on the HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms. "The error appears to have originated with a third-party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized. This is not connected to the recent cyber incident at HBO in the U.S.," HBO said.

HBO was referring to a recent breach in which hackers claim to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of information from the network, including, allegedly, unreleased TV series and proprietary files. On top of that leak, four people were arrested this week in India for leaking the fourth episode of Season 7 two days before its scheduled broadcast two weeks ago.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up