A poetic prank: Harvard's student newspaper was hacked to make fun of commencement speaker Mark Zuckerberg

Harvard Crimson Zuckerberg

(A screenshot of the hacked Harvard Crimson website on Thursday.archive.is screenshot)

Mark Zuckerberg is giving the commencement address at Harvard on Thursday after famously dropping out 12 years ago to create Facebook.

And in an ironic turn of events, Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, was hacked on the same day to show fake stories trolling Zuckerberg.

The apparent prank is fitting given that Zuckerberg hacked into the email accounts of two Harvard Crimson reporters in 2004 during his sophomore year. (You can read the full story about that here.)

We noticed the changes to The Crimson's website Thursday afternoon, minutes before Zuckerberg was expected to give the address. Many of the fake stories were quickly taken down, and the Crimson confirmed to Business Insider that it had in fact been hacked.

"Earlier today, The Harvard Crimson's website was altered by an unauthorized user," Crimson President Derek K. Choi told BI. "We are currently working to repair the breach. We regret any inconvenience to our users and look forward to the rest of Commencement."

Here's a screenshot of the Crimson's website when it was initially hacked:

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(Archive.is screenshot)

And an example of a fake story:

Screen Shot 2017 05 25 at 1.39.50 PM

(The Harvard Crimson / screenshot)

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