Fact Check: No, Actor Tom Hanks Has Not Been Arrested, Viral ‘BBC Report’ Screenshot Is Fake
The claim that Tom Hanks was arrested on 135 counts of child porn possession is false. The purported BBC News screenshot is fabricated, and BBC has confirmed that no such article was ever published.
The Verdict [Fake]
- A BBC spokesperson confirmed to Logically Facts that the image is fake.
What is the claim?
Social media users have circulated a purported screenshot of the BBC News homepage featuring an article headlined: "Live: Tom Hanks arrested on 135 counts of child porn possession." The screenshot shows actor Tom Hanks posing with his wife, Rita Wilson. Some users claim the article was briefly published on the BBC website before being removed.
A Facebook user shared the image with the caption, “Shocking karma time 2024 coming for many justice will be served crimes against children and humanity (sic).” The claim has also been shared on X, with archive versions available here, here, and here.
However, this claim is false. The alleged article was never published on the BBC website, and the viral screenshot is fabricated.
What are the facts?
We noticed two different images below the purported article featuring Hanks. A reverse search of the two images led us to BBC news articles published on June 18, 2021. The first image on the left, showing a woman wearing hijab sitting behind a nurse holding a syringe, was published in a BBC report in 2021. The second image, featuring a woman being interviewed, also dates back to June 18, 2021.
Following this clue, we searched for an archive of the BBC website on the Internet Archive from June 18, 2021, the publication date for both articles, to verify the lead story on the homepage.
However, the website’s archive page shows that no article about Hanks' arrest for child abuse was published on that day. Additionally, when these two articles were ranked, the lead story was about COVID-19 vaccines, headlined: "One COVID vaccine dose cuts hospital risk by 75%." A Google search also yielded no results for such a report.
Logically Facts contacted the BBC for a response about the purported screenshot, and a BBC spokesperson said, "We can confirm that this is fake."
Furthermore, the image used in the purported BBC news screenshot is from the 92nd Annual Academy Awards, held in February 2020. We found the image on Getty Images, which was credited to Kevin Mazur.
The verdict
A fabricated screenshot has been shared online to claim that the BBC "published and deleted" an article about Tom Hanks getting arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material.
This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.
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