''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a
fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and
debunking urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
s and similar stories in
American popular culture
The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...
.
History
1990s
In 1994,
David and Barbara Mikkelson created an urban
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
web site that would become ''Snopes.com''. ''Snopes'' was an early
online encyclopedia
An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, or a digital encyclopedia, is an encyclopedia accessible through the internet. Examples include Wikipedia and ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.
Digitization of old content
In January 199 ...
focused on urban legends, which mainly presented search results of user discussions. 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 the
search engine concept of fact-checking via search results.
David Mikkelson had originally adopted the username "Snopes" (the name of a family of often unpleasant people in the works of
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
)
in the
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
newsgroup alt.folklore.urban.
2000s
In 2002, the site had become known well enough that a
television pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...
called ''Snopes: Urban Legends'' was completed with American actor
Jim Davidson
James Cameron Davidson (born 13 December 1953) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, singer and TV presenter. He hosted the television shows '' Big Break'' and ''The Generation Game''. He also developed two adult pantomime shows such as ''B ...
as host. However, it did not air on major networks.
By 2010, the site was attracting seven million to eight million unique visitors in an average month.
2010s
By mid-2014, Barbara had not written for ''Snopes'' "in several years"
and David was forced to hire users from ''Snopes.com''
's message board to assist him in running the site. The Mikkelsons divorced around that time.
Christopher Richmond and Drew Schoentrup became part owners in July 2016 with the purchase of Barbara Mikkelson's share by the internet media management company Proper Media.
On March 9, 2017, David Mikkelson terminated the brokering agreement with Proper Media, which is also the company that provides ''Snopes'' with
web development,
hosting, and
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
support. 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 operate ''snopes.com''—started a
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the be ...
campaign to raise money to continue operations. They raised $500,000 in 24 hours. Later, in August, a judge ordered Proper Media to disburse advertising revenues to Bardav while the case was pending.
In July 2018, ''Snopes'' abruptly terminated its contract with Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, with no explanation. By the time ''Snopes'' co-founder and CEO David Mikkelson confirmed the termination to her, the situation was still not clear.
In early 2019, ''Snopes'' announced that it had acquired the website ''
OnTheIssues.org'', and is "hard at work modernizing its extensive archives". ''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".
In 2018 and 2019, ''Snopes'' fact-checked several articles from ''
The Babylon Bee
''The Babylon Bee'' is a conservative Christian news satire website that publishes satirical articles on topics including religion, politics, current events, and public figures. It has been referred to as a Christian, evangelical, or conservat ...
'', a satirical website, rating them "False". The decision resulted in Facebook adding warnings to links to those articles shared on its site.
''Snopes'' added a new rating called "Labeled Satire" to identify satirical stories.
In 2019, ''Snopes'' was embroiled in legal disputes with
Proper Media, with a
court case
A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case is typically based on either civil or criminal law. In most legal cases there are one or mor ...
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.
2020s
COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation
As the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
started in 2020, many people tried to "educate themselves on the coronavirus" and find "any comfort, certainty, or hope for a cure
or the coronavirus. ''Snopes'' has around 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.
Plagiarism by co-founder David Mikkelson
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.
Mikkelson also published plagiarized material under a pseudonym, "Jeff Zarronandia".
The ''BuzzFeed'' inquiry prompted ''Snopes'' to launch an internal review of Mikkelson's articles and retracted 60 of them the day the ''Buzzfeed'' story appeared. Mikkelson admitted to committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."
He was suspended from editorial duties during the investigation, but remains an officer and stakeholder in the company.
Change of ownership
On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by shareholder and board member
Chris Richmond.
Chris Richmond and fellow shareholder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending the ownership dispute which began in 2017.
Main site
Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, including
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
, ''
Fortune'', ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'', and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. By March 2009, the site had more than six million visitors per month. David Mikkelson ran the website from his home in
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...
.
Mikkelson has stressed the ''reference'' portion of the name ''Urban 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. Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.
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". The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference to the definition of the word ''
troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...
'', meaning an internet
persona
A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatr ...
intended to be deliberately provocative or incendiary.
In 2009, ''
FactCheck.org'' reviewed a sample of ''Snopes''
's responses to political rumors regarding
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
,
Sarah Palin, and
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
, and found them to be free from bias in all cases.
In 2012, ''
The Florida Times-Union
''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...
'' reported that ''
About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
''
'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.
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.
Funding
In 2016, ''Snopes'' said that the entirety of its revenue was derived from advertising.
In the same year it received an award of $75,000 from the
James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an American grant-making institution founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. As a nonprofit organization, the mission of JREF includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of ...
, an organization formed to debunk paranormal claims. In 2017, it raised approximately $700,000 from a crowd-sourced ''GoFundMe'' effort and received $100,000 from Facebook as a part of a fact-checking partnership.
''Snopes'' also offers a premium membership that disables ads .
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".
''Snopes'' publishes a yearly summary detailing expenses and sources of income.
[
]
See also
* Hoaxes – fabricated falsehoods
*
*
References
External links
*
{{Disinformation
Internet properties established in 1995
Webby Award winners
Skepticism
1995 establishments in California
Fact-checking websites