“Special Forces arrest Deep State Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

Following other false claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci disappeared from public view or was indicted, an Instagram post wrongly says the nation’s infectious disease chief has been arrested.

“Special Forces arrest Deep State Dr. Anthony Fauci” on Saturday says the April 11 post, which is a screenshot of a story from Real Raw News, a website that regularly publishes false stories with sensational headlines. The Instagram post included the hashtags #crimesagainsthumanity #traitor and #treason.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The claim is false, said Renate Myles, acting director of the Office of Communications for the National Institutes of Health.

On April 10, the day after the story claims Fauci was arrested, Fauci appeared live on the ABC News show “This Week.”

The baseless story about Fauci includes fabricated details such as, “When traveling to and from events, Fauci used decoy vehicles to reduce risk of being captured. The decoy vehicles, our source said, often held Fauci lookalikes or even mannequins that someone had built and painted to resemble him.”

Real Raw News stories, including the one about Fauci, all have the byline of “Michael Baxter,” which is a pseudonym.

After PolitiFact contacted Facebook in fall 2021 for a story about Real Raw News, the social media giant removed the website’s page from its platform.

The claim that special forces arrested Fauci is false. We rate it Pants on Fire!