Banksy has not been arrested. Let's not bury the lede here, people. The news of his incarceration is, yet again, a hoax.
If you woke up this morning to a Twitter feed filled with recycled "OMG BANKSY WAS ARRESTED/WTF BANKSY WAS NOT ARRESTED" exclamations, here's why.
This week's fickle rumor started with The National Report, which for those unaware, is an American satire site. A satirical post on the site reported, in a joking fashion lost on many an Internet surfer, that a 35-year-old man had been apprehended by authorities in the London suburb of Watford early Monday morning. It claimed that a press conference had validated that the man was indeed Banksy, that the BBC confirmed the information in their report, and that five men in total had been snagged with counterfeit money and "future projects of vandalism."
So illicit! So false.
Just to be extra clear, here are a few things that did not happen today: The anonymous British street artist was not caught by a "24-hour Anti-Graffiti Task Force." Police did not raid his studio in the middle of the night like a carefully plotted drug bust. His name is not and never will be Paul Horner.
We do appreciate the fact that someone out there is trying her hardest to make the name "Paul Horner" a thing. Remember last year, when some trolly press release tried to convince the masses that a Banksy arrest happened? The name of the apprehended: Paul Horner.
Stop trying to make "Paul Horner" happen, Gretchen. It's not going to happen!
