Editing Snopes (section)

=== 2020s ===
==== COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation ====
{{Main article|COVID-19 misinformation}}
As the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] started in 2020, many people tried to "educate themselves on the coronavirus" and find "any comfort, certainty, or hope for a cure [for the coronavirus]".<ref name="Ys1hw" />{{Primary source inline|date=August 2022}} ''Snopes'' has around 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.<ref name="wmBAB" />{{Year needed|date=January 2023}}

==== Plagiarism by co-founder David Mikkelson ====

On August 13, 2021, ''[[BuzzFeed News]]'' published an investigation by reporter Dean Sterling Jones that showed David Mikkelson had used plagiarized material from different news sources in 54 articles between 2015 and 2019 in an effort to increase website traffic.<ref name="Ron Lyons, Jr." /><ref name="HA5X5" /><ref name="lfTgN" /> Mikkelson also published plagiarized material under a pseudonym, "Jeff Zarronandia".<ref name="Ron Lyons, Jr." /> The ''BuzzFeed'' inquiry prompted ''Snopes'' to launch an internal review of Mikkelson's articles and to retract 60 of them the day the ''BuzzFeed'' story appeared. Mikkelson admitted to committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."<ref name="auto" /> He was suspended from editorial duties during the investigation, but remained an officer and stakeholder in the company.<ref name="N8AtM" /><ref name="auto" />

==== Change of ownership ====
On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by shareholder and board member [[Chris Richmond (entrepreneur)|Chris Richmond]].<ref name="yahoo" /> Richmond and fellow shareholder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending the ownership dispute which began in 2017.<ref name="yahoo" />