Fun Fact: This is not an image of SCP-7078.
Item #: SCP-7078
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7078 has been acquired by the Foundation for the purposes of containment. The building has been obfuscated with scaffolding and construction tarps to conceal its nature. Foundation personnel are advised to refrain from referring to the location as a "museum" — while triggering the object's effect is relatively harmless, an undesirable loss of productivity can occur. The length of all documentation on SCP-7078 is to be kept to a minimum in the interest of readability.
Description: SCP-7078 is the former Tiverton Children's Museum located in Tiverton, Rhode Island, United States. The building exhibits infohazardous properties — when individuals refer to the building as a "museum," they are compelled to list additional information. At first, these digressions will relate to the topic at hand (whether it be the museum itself or another subject) and consist mostly of factual, if unnecessary, clarifications. This effect can occur through both verbal and textual mediums and is not limited by the speaker's knowledge (or lack thereof) about the topic. Affected individuals are not forced to continue speaking — conversations in which the museum was acknowledged can and do cease, and the compulsion will fade after an indeterminate amount of time (estimated 1-2 hours).
For every successive referral to the building's nature as a museum, the incongruency and length of these digressions tends to increase. Affected individuals will start discussing topics wholly unsuited to their previous conversation — many of these asides will be incorrect, nonsensical, or otherwise irrelevant.
Addendum 7078.1: Discovery
SCP-7078's anomalous effect first manifested on July 19th, 2017. During a community picnic held at the museum, an argument between a staff member and a married couple occurred over a parking space. Witnesses reported that the husband pointed at the museum and accused the institution's administration of hiring unqualified employees. Immediately following this mention, he began to discuss the building's history, listing factoids such as its date of construction, how long the museum had been open, and who founded the institution.
When his partner inquired why he was discussing the museum in such detail, she too began to exhibit the anomalous effect. This caused a cascading effect, wherein confused onlookers would be drawn into the debate after trying to ascertain why the building had become a topic of discussion. Eventually, the couple grew frustrated with the conversation and left the premises. The remaining guests, cognizant of their inability to hold logical conversations, intentionally kept themselves silent.
The incident was recorded live by local news station WJAR 10. Following the broadcast, a Foundation containment team was dispatched to annex the site and administer amnestics to affected individuals. A cover story was disseminated, attributing the events seen on the broadcast to a hoax staged by internet influencers.
Currently, a Foundation disinformation and infohazard managementcampaign is underway in Tiverton and surrounding areas to suppress knowledge of the building's former status as a museum. The prevailing public narrative will be that the building was a former library, and the interior of the now-abandoned building will be redecorated to support this idea.