Fake News: Article 54 Of Obamacare Will NOT Take 30 Percent of Social Security From People Over 60

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Article 54 Of Obamacare Will NOT Take 30 Percent of Social Security From People Over 60

Will article 54 of Obamacare come into effect on May 1, 2018 and will that mean that 30 percent of social security will be taken away from people over 60 so it can be given to insurance for undocumented immigrants? No, that's not true, illegal imigrants will not be getting insurance with this money because it won't be taken away in the first place. The claim is fake news spread via an image posted on a Facebook page specifically designed to upset and troll conservatives and Trump supporters.

An image of former President Obama with following text superimposed was posted to a Facebook page named "America - Love It Or Leave It":

On May 1st, 2018 article 54 of Obamacare will take effect.

Anyone over 60 will have 30 percent of their social security diverted to funding for insurance for the undocumented.

The post was published on April 14, 2018 (archived here) with no extra text to accompany the image.

However the Facebook page that posted it has following description in its about tab:

Nothing on this page is real. It is a collection of the satirical whimsies of liberal trolls masquerading as conservatives. You have been warned.

Should you doubt that, you can read the full text of the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act here, since that is the full name of what is commonly refered to as Obamacare. We weren't able to locate any article 54 but the entire act does not even contain the word "undocumented" anyway as far as we were able to determine.

The Facebook page in question belongs to a network of Facebook pages and websites that troll conservatives and Republicans under the guise of satire. The owner and main writer of the network of sites is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites such as ladiesofliberty.net, thelastlineofdefense.online and dailyworldupdate.com. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.

Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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