Twitter falls hard for Banksy arrest hoax

20 Oct 2014

Stencil graffiti piece by Banksy via Shutterstock

Despite a report published this morning claiming the contrary, the near-mythical street artist Banksy has not been arrested by the London Metropolitan Police.

The false story stemmed from US website National Report and alleged that the identity of the social activist has been revealed to be 35-year-old Liverpudlian Paul Hunter. The site also claimed that he was being held “without bail on charges of vandalism, conspiracy, racketeering and counterfeiting” and published an alleged mugshot.

Banksy’s publicist Jo Brooks has since told The Independent that the report is a hoax (indeed, the author’s previous articles includes ‘Dennis Rodman Leaves US To Talk With Leaders Of Isis’). Still, the fake news caused a Twitter frenzy with duped users taking to the social network to vent their anger with the police. Among the more high profile people to be fooled was former Conservative MP Louise Mensch.

There was plenty of reaction to Banksy’s supposed Liverpool origins.

The eagle-eyed, however, spotted holes in the reports. 

But once the story proved to be false, there was lols to be had. 

Banksy piece image via Shutterstock

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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