Snopes Walks Back Claim that Titanic Sub Used Elon Musk’s Starlink

Fact-checker Snopes (Lean Left bias) suggested Elon Musk’s Starlink was partially to blame for the loss of communication with the OceanGate sub, before updating the claim. 

The Details: Snopes claimed the sub was using Starlink’s satellite internet services to access the internet while on the expedition, but said it did “not know how much Starlink is responsible for the loss of contact.” As Twitter replies piled up, informing Snopes that satellites cannot effectively communicate with underwater vessels, it changed its rating from “True” to “Unproven” to “False.” Musk himself replied, “You can’t even run a good psy op.”

The Correction: In its updated article, Snopes said scientists “pointed out that the submersible… could not have relied on satellite internet to communicate with the surface,” and that OceanGate recently said it relies on Starlink internet while at sea.

How The Media Covered It: Left and right-rated news sources covered the pivot, with right-rated sources highlighting it more prominently. Right-rated sources like Fox News (Right bias), Daily Mail (Right bias), and New York Post (Lean Right bias) described Snopes as a Left outlet. (AllSides has rated the bias of 24 fact checkers, and rated Snopes as Lean Left.) Left-rated sources were very critical of Snopes, but did not mention a perceived bias of the fact-checker. Mediaite (Lean Left bias) highlighted coverage of Snopes’ original erroneous claim from Occupy Democrats (Left bias) and Pop Crave, which has since deleted its Tweet.