The post everyone’s sharing, checked before you share it

Viral claims have a shape. They’re short, they’re emotional, and they arrive as screenshots, which is convenient, because a screenshot can’t be clicked through to its source. By the time a claim reaches you it may be five or six copies away from the original, and each copy smooths off a qualifier.

This desk works backward. We start with the exact version you saw, then trace it through reposts to the earliest one we can find. Often the first version was a joke, a question or a narrow true statement that grew on the way. Sometimes it was false from the start. Occasionally the viral version is right, and we’ll say that too.

A screenshot is never proof on its own here. If we can’t find the original post, document or recording, the verdict is unproven, however many people shared it.