Legal Battle Could Kill Fact-Check Site Snopes.com

Fact-check website Snopes.com is in danger of going dark, and that's no hoax.

The site today started a GoFundMe page, which is asking for $500,000 to help continue the site afloat. Information technology's currently raised only shy of $304,000.

A company with which Snopes partnered for advertising "volition not relinquish the site'due south hosting to our control, and so we cannot modify the site, develop it, or—most crucially—identify advertising on it. The vendor continues to insert their ain ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from u.s.," co-ordinate to Snopes.

"Our legal squad is fighting difficult for us, just, having been cut off from all revenue, nosotros are facing the prospect of having no fiscal ways to continue operating the site and paying our staff (not to mention covering our legal fees) in the meanwhile," Snopes says.

In the age of "false news," Snopes is one of the go-to sites when yous need to know if that crazy story you read on the internet is actually truthful. Only according to courtroom documents, a contractual battle and a complicated divorce might hateful the end of Snopes.

The fight dates back to 2022, when David Mikkelson and his and so-married woman Barbara hired Proper Media to handle advert sales, placement, and revenue for Snopes.com, which the Mikkelsons owned via their company, Bardav Inc.

The post-obit twelvemonth, however, David and Barbara divorced and each got 50 percent of Bardav. Barbara decided to sell her stake in Bardav to Proper Media. But because the terms of her agreement prevented her from selling to a company, Barbara sold her stake to Proper Media execs individually. Current Proper Media CEO Chris Richmond and President Drew Schoentrup each got xl percent of Barbara'south stake. Three others—Tyler Dunn, Vincent Green, and Ryan Miller—each got simply under 7 per centum.

Earlier this year, David Mikkelson decided to end his bargain with Proper Media, and gave them threescore days notice in March, he claims. In May, David asked for "certain data and data relating to Bardav and the Snopes.com website, of which Bardav is the legal owner only is soon in Proper Media'south possession, custody, or command," courtroom filings say. Proper Media has not complied, co-ordinate to David, who says it is "property hostage the requested information and data."

According to Proper Media, nevertheless, David Mikkelson teamed up with Vincent Greenish—who got that small pale from Barbara—so that Mikkelson would command more than fifty percent of Snopes and non have to answer to Proper Media. According to Proper Media, Green locked Richmond and Schoentrup out of the Snopes content management arrangement and stole $10,000 of computer equipment from the Proper Media offices.

Proper Media filed adapt in May, as Courthouse News showtime reported. Bardav counter-sued a month afterwards and did not mention Dark-green.

In a statement to NiemanLab, Proper Media today said the Snopes fundraising try "but confirms Proper Media's allegations that Mr. Mikkelson has drained the company'due south banking company accounts and is unable to operate Snopes profitably without Proper Media'south expertise and management."

Nigh Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe has led PCMag'due south news coverage for more than 10 years, editing and writing stories about the innovations that have shaped the final decade and the companies behind them. She also oversees the site's how-to coverage. Before joining PCMag.com, Chloe was a reporter roofing tech policy on Capitol Hill for The National Journal's Applied science Daily and financial IT for Incisive Media in NYC. She's held internships at NBC'southward Meet the Printing, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Whorl Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor'southward caste in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C.