Prominent fact-checker Snopes apologises for plagiarism

A file photo shows Mikkelson, founder of Snopes, the site that tracks fakery on the Web, in his home office in Tacoma, Wash. From 2015 to 2019, and possibly even earlier, Mikkelson included material lifted from the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and others to scoop up web traffic, according to BuzzFeed News, which broke the story on Aug 13, 2021. — The Seattle Times via AP

NEW YORK: The co-founder and CEO of the fact-checking site Snopes.com has acknowledged plagiarising from dozens of articles done by mainstream news outlets over several years, calling the appropriations “serious lapses in judgment”.

From 2015 to 2019 – and possibly even earlier – David Mikkelson included material lifted from the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and others to scoop up web traffic, according to BuzzFeed News, which broke the story Friday.