Hackers Post "Tupac Lives in New Zealand" on PBS Website

On the final weekend of May 2011, an astonishing report appeared on a page of the news broadcast PBS NewsHour: Tupac was alive, doing well, and living in New Zealand. It had not been written by the editorial staff, but by the hacker group LulzSec, who had breached systems of the US public broadcaster PBS.

Revenge for a Documentary

David Fanning, executive producer of the series Frontline, had noticed the intrusion. By Monday morning, the fake report had disappeared again. LulzSec explained that they had reacted to the Frontline documentary “WikiSecrets” about the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, broadcast one week earlier, by which the group had been “less than impressed.” In addition to the Tupac report, the hackers altered another PBS page and published login credentials for two others. According to rap.de, Fanning called the attack disappointing and irresponsible; PBS had been open to criticism of the film.

A Rumor That Refuses to Die

rap.de noted that conspiracy theories surrounding Tupac were hard to eradicate, and recalled that back in December 2010 fake reports of an alleged arrest of Suge Knight in the Tupac murder case had circulated on Twitter, spliced together from television footage. What truth lies behind the survival myths is examined in the fact check “Is Tupac Alive?”.