For decades, long before “fake news” became its own ridiculous kind of bullshit, Snopes has been the internet’s best hope for separating fascinating lies from boring reality. Ever wondered if a dead Bigfoot was really found in New Mexico? Or if the entire planet will be plunged into darkness this November? Or if somebody actually strung up a corpse and used it as a scarecrow? Probably not, because those all seem pretty unlikely (and we already got plunged into darkness last November), but not every myth is so cut-and-dry, and that’s why we need Snopes.
Unfortunately, in what does not seem to be an elaborate hoax of some kind, the people behind the website have revealed that the outside vendor in charge of hosting the site has essentially taken it hostage and is refusing to pay advertising revenue or relinquish control of the site. So, to help pay for the legal team that is fighting to take Snopes back, the site has launched a GoFundMe page and is now soliciting donations from the Snopes community.
The page has raised over $74,000 in a few hours, but that’s still way short of its $500,000 goal. The Snopes team has written a post laying all of this out, and though it doesn’t specifically mention Donald Trump or “fake news,” it does point out how misinformation has “increasingly threatened democracies around the world.” You can find the GoFundMe page at this link.