On Friday, posts began emerging on social media from people who claimed to have already watched “The Spoils of War,” better known as the yet-unaired fourth Episode of “Game of Thrones” Season 7.

The hackers, who went by the handle little.finger66, claimed to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data – though only an estimated 300 megabytes have actually leaked on the Internet, according to one person familiar with the matter who insisted on speaking anonymously in order to discuss details of the investigation.

“The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution.”

“At this very hour, black people all across the South are still fighting the battle which they joined during Reconstruction – securing equal access to the ballot – and resisting a president whose resemblance to Andrew Johnson is uncanny,” Coates wrote.

“Confederate is the kind of provocative thought experiment that can be engaged in when someone else’s lived reality really is fantasy to you, when your grandmother is not in danger of losing her vote, when the terrorist attack on Charleston evokes honest sympathy, but inspires no direct fear.”