What does the phrase “you can’t prove a negative” actually mean?
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If you ask me if a white swan exists, I can walk you down to a local pond and show you one. That’s proving a positive.
If you ask me if a purple swan exists, I can check every single pond in the world and not find one, but that’s still not definitive proof that it doesn’t exist. What if it was just hiding in the trees? What if it existed years ago and has gone extinct? What if it’s on another planet? What if it burrows into the ground when it hears people approaching? What if white swans turn purple at a certain time of year? What if they only come out during the light of the 3rd blue moon of the century? In order to fully prove the negative I have to rule out an infinite number of possibilities, which is an unachievable task. You can always propose some new, niche potential that leaves a small chance of the purple swan existing.
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