Claim: The U.S. government has been microchipping babies since 1983.
 | FALSE |
Example: [Collected via Twitter, March 2015]
Hospital Insider Reveals "The Government Has Been Microchipping Babies Since 1983"
Origins: On 16 March 2015, the disreputable web site Racket Report published an article titled "Hospital Insider Reveals 'The Government Has Been Microchipping Babies Since 1983'". According to the site, one or more unspecified people revealed the existence of a program under which all newborn babies have been implanted with RFID chips by the government for more than three decades:
The serial number on the chip, coincides with your Social Security number. You have been tracked your entire life. "RFID Microchips are essentially a unique ID embedded in your body, and, as we know, numbers can be stolen and data can be hacked," says University of Wollongong Prof. Katina Michael. "They point to an uber-surveillance society that is big brother on the inside looking out. Governments or large corporations have the ability to track people's actions and movements, and ultimately even control them."
According to several "hospital insiders" employees have been forced to microchip newborn babies in thousands of hospitals across the country since 1983.
The undated and unsourced article included what appeared to be a bogus share counter tracking tens of thousands of social media shares (not corroborated by a search of corresponding social networks), artificially inflating its credibility to unsuspecting readers. The fake news story bore some resemblance to an earlier, debunked rumor about laws requiring the microchipping of babies in Europe.
The Racket Report's disclaimer admits that the site's content is "for entertainment purposes only" and that "some stories on this website are fictitious":
The Racket Report is a news web publication with news articles, inspired by real news events. The articles and stories may or may not use real names, always a semi real and/or mostly, or substantially, fictitious ways. A few articles are for entertainment purposes only. The purpose of said stories is to entertain and amuse and not to disparage any persons, institutions, in anyway and no malice is intended towards anyone or anything, nor should any be construed from the fictional stories. That means some stories on this website are fictitious.
Previous articles from the site included a claim that KFC had begun selling marijuana in Colorado and another that Korean McDonald's outlets were offering a dog meat burger menu item.
Last updated: 17 March 2015