Viral Claim Origin Trace Record

PROBLEM: The story that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forced the Smithsonian to admit destroying thousands of giant skeletons has circulated for a decade — and it traces to a single 2014 article by World News Daily Report, a site that identified itself as satirical. The "American Institution of Alternative Archaeology" does not exist; there was no such case. The story survived because nobody traced it to its first publication. A viral claim with no origin record is immortal; the same claim with its origin attached dies on contact.

SOLUTION: A viral-claim origin-trace record: every circulating claim logged with its first known publication, the publication's own description of itself, and the primary documents the claim depends on — court docket, accession register, judicial opinion — with each missing document marked missing, so a claim whose foundation is a satire article carries that fact in its record.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — The Smithsonian giants story traces to a 2014 World News Daily Report article (self-described satire); the American Institution of Alternative Archaeology does not exist; there was no Supreme Court case; the Smithsonian has denied the claim flatly (Smithsonian Magazine myth-busting; Reuters/Lead Stories fact-checks, 2022). No verified giant human skeletons have ever been documented.