Chain e-mail evolves to Facebook updates

If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen it: Someone types a message into their status update and urges all their friends to do the same. It could be to support a cause like breast cancer awareness, to find out your friends’ middle names, or to share a line from your favorite movie.

Readers notified us that there was a new one going around about President Barack Obama:

“Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS!!! Please repost if you support our troops.”

We looked into the facts behind this one and rated the statement Barely True. It’s our first fact-check of a chain Facebook status update.

While we’re on the topic, PolitiFact is on Facebook, where you can discuss our latest rulings with other readers.