Snopes.com Turns to Crowdfunding for Help as Fact-Checking Website Gets Funds Cut Off
David Mikkelson called for help from the online community to save the long-running fact check website after a legal dispute has cut the Snopes.com team from their funds. The GoFundMe campaign has been a big success, raising well over the target half million in just a day.
The fact-checking site which started way back in 1994 as a solo effort is in danger of closing down, as the crowdfunding page message tells its readers.
The site now needs donations to survive, and hopefully win a costly legal battle against a third-party service who does "not acknowledge the change in contractual status and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com web site hostage," according to the site's appeal on GoFundMe.
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The crowdfunding drive, which started on GoFundMe on Monday, July 24, has gathered well in excess of its $500,000 target by this time. The campaign site tags the drive, titled "Help save Snopes.com!," as a trending campaign, and lists David Mikkelson as its creator.
Proper Media, the vendor that runs the advertising side of Snopes.com, has allegedly said that Mr. Mikkelson, who co-founded the website, should be ousted from Bardav for irresponsible spending, according to the New York Times.
Bardav is the company that owns Snopes.com and runs its operations, outside of advertising. Proper Media has reportedly held on to the site's revenue, cutting it off from its primary means of funding.
"We have had no income whatsoever for the last several months," Mr. Mikkelson said in earlier an interview.
While the GoFundMe letter written for Snopes.com called Proper Media an "outside vendor," the advertising firm considers itself to have a proper stake in the myth-busting website. Their claim lies in the fact that Barbara Mikkelson, David's ex-wife, sold her 50 percent share of the website to Proper Media last year.
A court hearing set for Aug. 4 could bring this dispute to proper examination. Meanwhile, a court has ordered Proper Media to send $100,000 of the collected revenue to Bardav, on the condition that the latter can only use the money for their expenses.
