I hadn't heard about this, and there's nothing in the main article posted about the origins. I went to their gofundme and read a bunch of updates, and was able to find this article. Seems to stem from an alleged breach of contract. As an anonymous internet commentator and IAAL, I will say that a skim of the complaints and various actions leads me to believe that Salon group is acting in bad faith, and the various courts who have ruled agree with that view. Poor Snopes. :(

The complaint:

http://www.poynter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Snopes-COM...

From here:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2017/snopes-is-locked-...

A snippet:

The relationship between the two companies stretches back to the fall of 2015, when Bardav founder David Mikkelson inked a deal with Proper Media to manage all content and advertising accounts for Snopes, according to the complaint. Mikkelson terminated that agreement in spring 2017, according to the document.

“Our termination of the contract was fully in accord with the cancellation provisions of that contract,” he told Poynter in an email. “The contract was terminated because it was highly disadvantageous to us.”

A month after Proper Media filed its legal complaint, Bardav filed a cross-complaint in the Superior Court of California in San Diego County alleging four claims, including breach of contract.

“Proper Media failed to perform its contractual and legal obligations, and Bardav eventually terminated the contract in accordance with its terms,” the document reads. “Proper Media is now wrongfully withholding money owed to Bardav and effectively holding the Snopes.com website hostage by preventing Bardav from moving the website, advertising and other back-end functions to another service provider.”

Bardav signed over a share of Snopes’ revenue to Proper Media in exchange for web services such as management of its back-end advertising platform, according to the cross-complaint. Proper Media alleges in its original complaint, which was filed in early May, that it still has a valid, written contract that the company upheld until Bardav withheld the “accounts, tools and data” it needed to manage Snopes’ operations. The complaint alleges that Mikkelson himself breached the agreement by canceling it.