Snopes evolved from a catalog of online urban legends into a dedicated fact-checking newsroom that documents viral rumors, political misinformation, and conspiracy theories circulating across the internet.

Origins in Urban Legends

Founded in 1994 by David and Barbara Mikkelson, Snopes began as the “Urban Legends Reference Pages” tracking folklore that spread through email chains and early web forums. The site established a reputation for documenting hoaxes with citations, searchable archives, and a clear true/false rating system.

Expansion into Political Fact-Checking

As social media accelerated the spread of political misinformation in the late 2000s, Snopes expanded its editorial staff and introduced beat reporters to cover fabricated campaign stories, political chain emails, and misleading policy claims. The outlet created topic hubs for elections, immigration, and public health, pairing verdict labels with detailed sourcing notes.

Platform Partnerships

Snopes joined Facebook’s third-party fact-checking program in 2016, flagging viral posts and memes for contextual labels and distribution limits. It collaborated with Google, Microsoft, and YouTube on misinformation research efforts, supplying structured data about debunked narratives for search and ranking experiments.

Staffing and Independence Debates

The site faced recurring resource challenges as demand for rapid debunking grew faster than newsroom budgets. Snopes briefly paused its Facebook partnership in 2019 citing workflow strains, later resuming participation after establishing clearer data pipelines. Leadership changes and union negotiations highlighted the pressures of maintaining editorial independence while partnering with technology platforms on misinformation control.

Data and Methodology Transparency

Snopes publishes detailed sourcing notes, explains rating criteria, and documents update histories for each fact-check. The outlet makes its debunk data available to academic researchers and civic misinformation trackers, helping shape broader transparency standards for digital fact-checking operations.