Users are sharing an article that falsely claims actor Tom Hanks was executed by the U.S. military. The claim stems from a website repeatedly debunked by Reuters.
An example can be seen here .
The posts share a link to an article published on RealRawNews.com (here ) on July 27, 2021, where the first two paragraphs read: “Actor Tom Hanks has left the earth, put to death by a military tribunal that found him guilty of pedophilia and child endangerment. On June 12, the U.S. military apprehended Hanks after a plane he had chartered in Greece, where he holds dual citizenship, landed at Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy, where Hanks had been scheduled to attend a foreign film festival.”
Content from Real Raw News has been debunked by Reuters multiple times before, with examples visible here , here , and here .
The website states in its ‘About Us’ section (here) that: “Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice of legal counsel.”
The article seems to allude to the QAnon conspiracy theory, adherents of which have been scouring anonymous web postings from a figure named “Q” (who claims to be a government insider with top secret security clearance) and parsing statements by former U.S. President Donald Trump, whom they believed to be their champion secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and “deep state” allies (here).
It is true that Hanks is a Greek citizen. In late July 2020, Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson became honorary Greek citizens because of their work spreading awareness of the 2018 fires that devastated Greece’s Attica region and their promotion of Greek tourism through their frequent trips to Antiparos, where the family owns a house ( here , here ). Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis shared a photograph with the couple on his Instagram page on July 26, 2020 (here).
On July 9, 2021, Wilson posted a photograph of Hanks riding a bike on her Instagram page (here) to wish him a happy birthday.
Hanks and Wilson were spotted in Greece on Aug. 5, 2021 here .
Hanks also recently joined Wes Anderson’s new movie “The French Dispatch”, which is expected to be shot in Spain, as reported by Deadline (here).
Representatives for Hanks and the U.S. Military did not immediately return requests for comment.
VERDICT
False. Actor Tom Hanks has not been executed by the U.S. military after being found guilty of pedophilia and child endangerment.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.