House of the Dragon 2: HBO confronts early leak of season finale, vows to tackle social media spread

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HBO has responded to the early social media leak of the House of the Dragon season 2 finale. On Tuesday night, an unauthorised TikTok account posted numerous sneak peeks from the upcoming eighth episode—set to air on August 5 in India—which then circulated on other platforms. It appeared that someone was filming a screen with a secondary device to collect footage.

HBO responds to the unauthorised leak of House of the Dragon finale

The corporation acknowledged in a statement that they had shared footage from the House of the Dragon season finale on various social media sites. The videos went live following an accidental upload by a global third-party distributor. Despite HBO's vigilance in policing the internet for clips, viewers will be able to catch the full episode on JioCinema this coming Monday morning.

After several viewers spotted significant House of the Dragon spoilers, the account and videos were removed. The account's videos were removed after more than half of them got 100,000 views or more.

The finale of the famous fantasy drama has leaked online before its scheduled release for the second season.

Historical context of leaks in the Game of Thrones franchise

There has been a lengthy history of information leaks in the Game of Thrones franchise. HBO typically delivers episodes to its global content partners a week prior to their airing. For instance, the 2022 leak originated from a distribution partner catering to the European, Middle Eastern, and African markets. There are a lot of hands that need to touch a locked episode before it can air, especially when regional subtitle dubbing is involved in the day-and-date global distribution process.

Season eight concludes on Sunday night, but HBO is diligently at work producing season nine. HBO renewed the series for a third season before the premiere of season 2. The Dance of the Dragons, the catastrophic civil war in Targaryen, has continued in this season's plot. The enormous dragons have, as promised, become much more central to the plot this season.