Mr Robot Season 2 premiere leaked by show runners on social media to represent cybersecurity theme

USA Network's Golden Globe winning drama Mr Robot whose season 2 premiere episode was due to appear on 13 July was leaked by the show runners themselves on social media for a short period. The creators say they wanted to promote the theme of the show — cyber-security and hacking — and hence the unique way of promotion for the first episode.

The show tells the story of Elliot Alderson a loner but a brilliant hacker and his creation, fsociety, a hacktivist group loosely based on Anonymous. A masked figure interrupts a live Facebook Q&A with its creators saying: "You deserve something new, something unexpected, something you've never seen before." To everyone's surprise the premiere episode played live for people to watch.

The full episode arrived on micro-blogging site Twitter as well, with the show's official page tweeting a schedule of when it would hit other social networks and online services. Snapchat followed Twitter, before the premiere also hit YouTube and the USA network's own site.

The actual broadcast of the season 2 premiere is scheduled for 13 July evening and the leaked content has already been taken down. The show's official Twitter account, however, promised that this was "just the beginning", suggesting that there are more stunts coming in keeping with the show's cyber-security theme.

In the past as well, the network has experimented with promotions for the show under hacktivist-based theme promotions that included setting up a dedicated website called "Who is Mr Robot." The show has gained immense popularity among hacktivist enthusiasts and received appreciation for depicting actual hacking techniques and displaying accurate codes on computer monitors. The creators use the expertise of real life white hat hackers and grey hat hackers to maintain the authenticity.