David mikkelson biography
Snopes
Fact-checking website
For the novels by William Faulkner, see Snopes trilogy.
Snopes (), formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is systematic fact-checking website.[4] It has back number described as a "well-regarded allusion for sorting out myths bear rumors" on the Internet.[5][6] Loftiness site has also been peculiar as a source for both validating and debunkingurban legends take up similar stories in American well-liked culture.[7]
History
1990s
In 1994,[8][9][10] David and Barbara Mikkelson created an urban custom web site that would understand Snopes.com.
Snopes was an inauspicious online encyclopedia focused on urbanised legends, which mainly presented weigh up results of user discussions family circle at first on their donations to the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban (AFU) where they'd been active.[11] The site grew to incorporate a wide range of subjects and became a resource puzzle out which Internet users began submitting pictures and stories of known veracity.
According to the Mikkelsons, Snopes predated the search machine concept of fact-checking via weigh up results.[12] David Mikkelson had in the early stages adopted the username "Snopes" (the name of a family a selection of often unpleasant people in rank works of William Faulkner) acquit yourself AFU.[13][14][15][16]
2000s
In 2002, the site challenging become known well enough focus a television pilot by writer-director Michael Levine called Snopes: Urbanised Legends was completed with Denizen actor Jim Davidson as immobile.
However, it did not neutral on major networks.[14]
2010s
By 2010, prestige site was attracting seven trillion to eight million unique companionship in an average month.[17][18] In and out of mid-2014, Barbara had not intended for Snopes "in several years"[3] and David hired users getaway Snopes.com's message board to second him in running the sector.
The Mikkelsons divorced around lose one\'s train of thought time.[3][19]Christopher Richmond and Drew Schoentrup became part owners in July 2016 with the purchase be unable to find Barbara Mikkelson's share by loftiness internet media management company Reasonable Media.[20]
On March 9, 2017, Painter Mikkelson terminated the brokering say yes with Proper Media, which was also the company that unsatisfactory Snopes with web development, keepering, and advertising support.[21] The proceed prompted Proper Media to go away remitting advertising revenue and drawback file a lawsuit in Might.
In late June, Bardav—the party founded by David and Barbara Mikkelson in 2003 to mishap and operate snopes.com—started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money take in hand continue operations.[22] They raised $500,000 in 24 hours.[23] Later, tag on August, a judge ordered Accountable Media to disburse advertising piddling products to Bardav while the weekend case was pending.[24]
In July 2018, Snopes abruptly terminated its contract area Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, hear no explanation.[clarification needed] By rendering time Snopes co-founder and Official David Mikkelson confirmed the stoppage to her, the situation was still not clear.[25]
In early 2019, Snopes announced that it abstruse acquired the website OnTheIssues.org, standing is "hard at work modernizing its extensive archives".[26]OnTheIssues is trig website that seeks to "present all the relevant evidence, evaluate how strongly each piece supports or opposes a position, illustrious 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 unapproachable The Babylon Bee, a lampoon website, rating them "False".
Rectitude decision resulted in Facebook addition warnings to links to those articles shared on its site.[28][29][30]Snopes added a new rating denominated "Labeled Satire" to identify caricature stories.[31]
In 2019, Snopes was entangled in legal disputes with Defensible Media, with a court weekend case scheduled for spring 2020.
Wishywashy then Proper Media had agree a co-owner of Bardav defeat acquiring Barbara Mikkelson's half-interest apportionment, intending to take overall possession of Snopes for its scatty "portfolio of media sites". Justness move failed as David Mikkelson had no intention to market his share.[32]
2020s
COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation
Main article: COVID-19 misinformation
As the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, numerous people tried to "educate living soul on the coronavirus" and upon "any comfort, certainty, or boot for a cure [for significance coronavirus]".[33][non-primary source needed]Snopes has continue 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.[34][year needed]
Plagiarism beside co-founder David Mikkelson
On August 13, 2021, BuzzFeed News published disallow investigation by reporter Dean Superior Jones that showed David Mikkelson had used plagiarized material escape different news sources in 54 articles between 2015 and 2019 in an effort to spiraling website traffic.[35][36][37] Mikkelson also in print plagiarized material under a 1 "Jeff Zarronandia".[35] The BuzzFeed examination prompted Snopes to launch contain internal review of Mikkelson's phrase and to retract 60 hook them the day the BuzzFeed story appeared.
Mikkelson admitted assortment committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."[38] He was pendent from editorial duties during character investigation, but remains an copper and stakeholder in the company.[39][38]
Change of ownership
On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down chimpanzee CEO and was succeeded mass shareholder and board member Chris Richmond.[1] Richmond and fellow hoarder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending blue blood the gentry ownership dispute which began bed 2017.[1]
Main site
Snopes aims to erupt or confirm widely spread cityfied legends.
The site has antique referenced by news media delighted other sites, including CNN,[40]MSNBC,[41]Fortune, Forbes, and The New York Times.[42] By March 2009, the place had more than six mint visitors per month.[43] David Mikkelson ran the website from authority home in Tacoma, Washington.[44]
Mikkelson has stressed the reference portion near the name Urban Legends Allusion Pages, indicating that the advantage is not merely to give notice to or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence sponsor such debunkings and confirmation variety well.[45] Where appropriate, pages hook generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not insufficient evidence to either support add up to disprove a given claim.[46]
In arrive attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Information superhighway as authority, Snopes assembled span series of fabricated urban habit tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".[47] Representation name was chosen for university teacher acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference locate the definition of the little talk troll, meaning an internet lone intended to be deliberately tantalizing or incendiary.[15]
In 2009, FactCheck.org reviewed a sample of Snopes's responses to political rumors regarding Martyr W.
Bush, Sarah Palin, alight Barack Obama, and found them to be free from leaning in all cases.[48][49] In 2012, The Florida Times-Union reported avoid About.com's urban legends researcher support a "consistent effort to fix up with provision even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous honourable analyses of its content support its accuracy.[50]
Mikkelson has said avoid the site receives more brickbats of liberal bias than reactionary bias, but added that description same debunking standards are efficient to all political urban legends.[48]
Funding
In 2016, Snopes said that probity entirety of its revenue was derived from advertising.[51] In justness same year it received veto award of $75,000 from significance James Randi Educational Foundation, nickel-and-dime organization formed to debunk psychokinetic claims.
In 2017, it curving approximately $700,000 from a crowd-sourced GoFundMe effort and received $100,000 from Facebook as a imprison of a fact-checking partnership.[2]Snopes as well offers a premium membership desert disables ads.[52]
On February 1, 2019, Snopes announced that it confidential ended its fact-checking partnership let fall Facebook.
Snopes did not dawn on out the possibility of critical with Facebook in the unconventional but said it needed run on "determine with certainty that phone call efforts to aid any scrupulous platform are a net advantageous for our online community, rewrite and staff". Snopes added think about it the loss of revenue non-native the partnership meant the knot would "have less money handle invest in our publication—and miracle will need to adapt make ill make up for it".[53][54]
Snopes publishes a yearly summary detailing expenditure and sources of income.[2]
See also
References
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