 | |
 A screenshot of Snopes home page in 2019 | |
Type of site | Reference pages |
|---|---|
| Owner | |
| Created by | Barbara Mikkelson David P. Mikkelson[3] |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required only on forums |
| Launched | 1994; 31 years ago (1994) (asUrban Legends Reference Pages) |
| Current status | Active |
Snopes (/ˈsnoʊps/), formerly known as theUrban Legends Reference Pages, is afact-checking website.[4] It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet.[5][6] The site has also been seen as a source for both validating anddebunkingurban legends and similar stories inAmerican popular culture.[7]
In 1994,[8][9][10] David and Barbara Mikkelson created an urbanfolklore web site that would becomeSnopes.com.Snopes was an earlyonline encyclopedia focused on urban legends, which mainly presented search results of user discussions based at first on their contributions to theUsenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban (AFU) where they'd been active.[11] The site grew to encompass a wide range of subjects and became a resource to which Internet users began submitting pictures and stories of questionable veracity. According to the Mikkelsons,Snopes predated thesearch engine concept of fact-checking via search results.[12] David Mikkelson had originally adopted the username "Snopes" (the name ofa family of often unpleasant people in the works ofWilliam Faulkner) in AFU.[13][14][15][16]
In 2002, the site had become known well enough that atelevision pilot by writer-director Michael Levine calledSnopes: Urban Legends was completed with American actorJim Davidson as host. However, it did not air on major networks.[14]
By 2010, the site was attracting seven million to eight million unique visitors in an average month.[17][18]By mid-2014, Barbara had not written forSnopes "in several years"[3] and David hired users fromSnopes.com's message board to assist him in running the site. The Mikkelsons divorced around that time.[3][19]Christopher Richmond andDrew Schoentrup became part owners in July 2016 with the purchase of Barbara Mikkelson's share by the internet media management companyProper Media.[20]
On March 9, 2017, David Mikkelson terminated the brokering agreement with Proper Media, which was also the company that providedSnopes withweb development,hosting, andadvertising support.[21] The move prompted Proper Media to stop remitting advertising revenue and to file a lawsuit in May. In late June, Bardav—the company founded by David and Barbara Mikkelson in 2003 to own and operatesnopes.com—started aGoFundMe campaign to raise money to continue operations.[22] They raised $500,000 in 24 hours.[23] Later, in August, a judge ordered Proper Media to disburse advertising revenues to Bardav while the case was pending.[24]
In July 2018,Snopes abruptly terminated its contract with Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, with no explanation.[clarification needed] By the timeSnopes co-founder and CEO David Mikkelson confirmed the termination to her, the situation was still not clear.[25]
In early 2019,Snopes announced that it had acquired the websiteOnTheIssues.org, and is "hard at work modernizing its extensive archives".[26]OnTheIssues is a website that seeks to "present all the relevant evidence, assess how strongly each piece supports or opposes a position, and summarize it with an average" in order to "provide voters with reliable information on candidates' policy positions".[27]
In 2018 and 2019,Snopes fact-checked several articles fromThe Babylon Bee, a satirical website, rating them "False". The decision resulted in Facebook adding warnings to links to those articles shared on its site.[28][29][30]Snopes added a new rating called "Labeled Satire" to identify satirical stories.[31]
In 2019,Snopes was embroiled in legal disputes with Proper Media, with acourt case scheduled for spring 2020. By then Proper Media had become a co-owner of Bardav through acquiring Barbara Mikkelson's half-interest share, intending to take overall ownership of Snopes for its own "portfolio of media sites". The move failed as David Mikkelson had no intention to sell his share.[32]
As theCOVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, many people tried to "educate themselves on the coronavirus" and find "any comfort, certainty, or hope for a cure [for the coronavirus]".[33][non-primary source needed]Snopes has around 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.[34][year needed]
On August 13, 2021,BuzzFeed News published an investigation by reporter Dean Sterling Jones that showed David Mikkelson had used plagiarized material from different news sources in 54 articles between 2015 and 2019 in an effort to increase website traffic.[35][36][37] Mikkelson also published plagiarized material under a pseudonym, "Jeff Zarronandia".[35] TheBuzzFeed inquiry promptedSnopes to launch an internal review of Mikkelson's articles and to retract 60 of them the day theBuzzFeed story appeared. Mikkelson admitted to committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."[38] He was suspended from editorial duties during the investigation, but remained an officer and stakeholder in the company.[39][38]
On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by shareholder and board memberChris Richmond.[1] Richmond and fellow shareholder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending the ownership dispute which began in 2017.[1]
Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, includingCNN,[40]MSNBC,[41]Fortune,Forbes, andThe New York Times.[42] By March 2009, the site had more than six million visitors per month.[43] David Mikkelson ran the website from his home inTacoma, Washington.[44]
Mikkelson has stressed thereference portion of the nameUrban Legends Reference Pages, indicating that the intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmation as well.[45] Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.[46]
In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Internet as authority,Snopes assembled a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".[47] The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference to the internet slang termtroll, meaning an onlinepersona intended to be deliberately provocative or incendiary.[15]
Example: AYouTube short posted by Zackdfilms titled "Why KFC Stopped Using "Kentucky" In Their Name (EXPLAINED)" originates from a Snopes article by Snopes Staff titled "Why Did 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' Change Their Name to 'KFC'?. The article was rated "Lost Legend". He then made a short titled "I Messed Up... (sorry)"
In 2009,FactCheck.org reviewed a sample ofSnopes's responses to political rumors regardingGeorge W. Bush,Sarah Palin, andBarack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases.[48][49] In 2012,The Florida Times-Union reported thatAbout.com's urban legends researcher found a "consistent effort to provide even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous reputable analyses of its content confirm its accuracy.[50]
Mikkelson has said that the site receives more complaints of liberal bias than conservative bias, but added that the same debunking standards are applied to all political urban legends.[48]
In 2016,Snopes said that the entirety of its revenue was derived from advertising.[51] In the same year it received an award of $75,000 from theJames Randi Educational Foundation, an organization formed to debunk paranormal claims. In 2017, it raised approximately $700,000 from a crowd-sourcedGoFundMe effort and received $100,000 from Facebook as a part of a fact-checking partnership.[2]Snopes also offers a premium membership that disables ads.[52]
On February 1, 2019,Snopes announced that it had ended its fact-checking partnership with Facebook.Snopes did not rule out the possibility of working with Facebook in the future but said it needed to "determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication and staff".Snopes added that the loss of revenue from the partnership meant the company would "have less money to invest in our publication—and we will need to adapt to make up for it".[53][54]
Snopes publishes a yearly summary detailing expenses and sources of income.[2]
Snopes, the world's leading fact-checking site, today announced that two of its shareholders, Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup, have acquired 100% of the company. ~. Effective Sept. 16, Mikkelson stepped down as chief executive officer and stepped down from the Snopes Board of Directors. Richmond, who has served as a board member of Snopes since 2018, has assumed the role of chief executive officer
David Mikkelson's Web site is a verb. Along with Google, hip Web surfers now Snopes anything having to do with urban legends, pop culture myths and general folklore. ~. The 45-year-old and his wife, Barbara, founded Snopes.com on a whim back in 1995. The site gets its name from Mikkelson's old Internet nickname.
The most widely known resource for validating or debunking rumors, myths, hoaxes, and urban legends in popular American culture is the website run by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson at www.snopes.com... .
What are 'snopes'?
The two most notorious trollers in AFU,Ted Frank and snopes, are also two of the most consistent posters of serious research.
While Proper Media was already managing a significant amount of the operation of Snopes including all content and advertising accounts prior to acquiring shares in the company, the company says in its complaint that when its individual shareholders, including Vincent Green, gained a stake in Snopes a scam was launched to take over the website – one of the 1,000 most popular in the United States. But Proper Media says in its complaint that Mikkelson "was unhappy that Barbara maintained ownership of half of what he always considered to be his company after the divorce." Thus, Proper Media says, Green and Mikkelson conspired to gain majority control of Bardav and Snopes.com. Mikkelson and Green blocked its access to "personnel, accounts, tools and data necessary to manage Snopes," according to the lawsuit.
How do I know the information you've presented is accurate?
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