Was former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal arrested for possessing child pornography? No, that's not true: The article is from a satirical website and is completely made up. It was originally published without a satire label but has been updated to note that it is an "obvious satire article."
The claim appeared in an article published by Vancouver Times on December 23, 2022, titled "Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal arrested for child porn" (archived here) which opened:
Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter, has been arrested for possession of child pornography after a tip off from Elon Musk.
The executive was arrested at his home in California by the FBI. His lawyer has stated to the Vancouver Times that he plans on pleading not guilty. He is expected to be released on bail.
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal arrested for child porn
Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter, has been arrested for possession of child pornography after a tip off from Elon Musk. The executive was arrested at his home in California by the FBI. His lawyer has stated to the Vancouver Times that he plans on pleading not guilty. He is expected to be released [...]
While the Vancouver Times is a known satire website, the article did not initially note that it was a spoof story. When it was originally published on December 23, 2022, there was no mention that it was satirical. In fact, as an archived version of the article shows, it claimed it was being ignored by "mainstream media" and "big tech":
The mainstream media and big tech want to hide the truth. Beat them at their own game by sharing this article!
On December 26, 2022, an update was added at the very bottom of the article. Still, nothing in the headline or top portion indicated that it was satire, as this archived version shows:
UPDATE: Fact-checkers wasted their time 'fact-checking' this obvious satire article. To ease confusion, the article has been added to the satire section, and a note has been added to the bottom of the article.
This is a satire article. For more information on our website, go to the About Us section or read the Disclaimer.
(Source: Vancouver Times screenshot taken on Tue Dec 27 19:58:47 2022 UTC)
Lead Stories fact checks of other Vancouver Times reports can be found here.
