An image shared on Facebook claims Disney CEO Bob Chapek is in jail “for abusing 2 little girls.”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that Chapek has been arrested, charged or jailed for such a crime. The claim was originally posted on a website that has previously published misinformation.

Fact Check:

Bob Iger, in February 2020, abruptly stepped down from his position as CEO of Disney, which he had held since 2005, according to Axios. Now, some social media users are claiming that Iger’s replacement, Bob Chapek, has been arrested.

“This is the CEO of Disney Bob Chapek,” reads text superimposed over an image of Chapek. “He is in jail for abusing 2 little girls, yet Disney and the MSM have said nothing.”

There is, however, no evidence Chapek has been jailed for such a thing. Had the CEO of Disney, one of the world’s largest media companies, actually been arrested, it almost certainly would have made headlines, yet no major U.S. or foreign news outlets have reported on it. Disney has also not put out any press releases addressing such a thing.

The claim appears to stem from a Feb. 12 article, titled “CEO of Disney jailed on CHILD SEX ABUSE charges,” by the Conservative Beaver, a self-described Canadian conservative news website that publishes “news from your favourite alternative sources.” The article claims that Chapek has been “charged with ten counts of sexual abuse against two children” for incidents that occurred in Burbank, California, and that the charges include “bestiality and making extremely sadistic child pornography.”

“The arrest is subject to a gag order,” reads the article’s last paragraph. “This means no media in the US can report on this. Conservative Beaver is based in Montreal, and can report on this freely.”

Despite the article’s claims, there is no indication of any “gag order” in place. No international news outlets covered Chapek’s alleged crimes. (RELATED: Was Pope Francis Arrested On Charges Including Human Trafficking And Fraud?)

“The claims that ‘Disney CEO Bob Chapek’ has been arrested by the Burbank Police Department (CA) are false,” said Burbank Police Department Sgt. Emil Brimway in an email to Check Your Fact. Brimway also noted that retired Lt. Matthew Ferguson, who is quoted in the Conservative Beaver article, has “not been employed by the City of Burbank or the Burbank Police Department for several years.”

This is not the first time The Conservative Beaver has published misinformation. In December, Check Your Fact debunked a false claim shared by the outlet that former President Barack Obama was arrested for espionage.

Disney did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.