According to a recent announcement from the firm, Smartmatic, a voting technology company, has settled its lawsuit against One America News, a right-wing news site, for spreading false information regarding the 2020 election.
Smartmatic Settlement:
In response to One America News Network, a far-right broadcaster, amplifying electoral misinformation regarding the 2020 presidential election, the voting technology company Smartmatic and the broadcaster struck a settlement on Tuesday.
The attorneys verified the existence of a private settlement for both sides in emails.
In 2021, Smartmatic launched a lawsuit against OAN, claiming that the media outlet had published unfounded allegations linking Smartmatic to vote machine manipulation in the presidential election. The attorneys for Smartmatic filed a motion with the U.S. District Court on Tuesday, asking the District of Columbia to drop the case with prejudice—a term that precludes a retrial.
About OAN:
Following his loss in 2020, OAN was among many right-wing cable networks that carried conspiracy theories advanced by followers of former president Donald J. Trump. These theories included the unsupported assertion that votes in crucial states had been manipulated to favor President Biden.
Defamation Suit:
To draw viewers away from Channel, Smartmatic claimed in its initial lawsuit that it had been harmed by the network’s “decision to grow its viewership and impact by propagating untruth.” According to the lawsuit, OAN consistently associated Smartmatic with a countrywide conspiracy to rig votes, even though it knew there was no proof and that Smartmatic’s hardware and software had only been utilized in Los Angeles County during the election.
OAN, a pro-Trump platform founded by Herring Networks in 2013, was dropped by DirecTV and Verizon Fios in 2022 and is currently unavailable on all major carriers.
Several lawsuits against conservative news sites for their coverage of the 2020 election have been brought by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, two election technology companies, even though this case has expired.
Dominion is still suing OAN for slander. In September, it resolved an additional legal dispute that former Dominion executive Eric Coomer had filed against the network.
In April last year, Channel settled a defamation lawsuit against Dominion for airing similar conspiracy claims by agreeing to pay the company $787.5 million. The day before a trial was scheduled to start, a last-minute settlement was reached, reportedly the largest in a defamation lawsuit ever.
Smartmatic filed a lawsuit against Channel in the New York State Supreme Court in 2021, requesting at least $2.7 billion in damages. It is anticipated that the lawsuit will not go to trial until 2025. News Channel has responded by claiming that Smartmatic is the target of a baseless lawsuit intended to stifle free expression.
Separate lawsuits from Smartmatic and Dominion have been filed against Newsmax, alleging that it has featured unfounded allegations of vote-rigging on many occasions. In September, both claims are scheduled for trial in Delaware Superior Court under the supervision of Judge Eric Davis, who oversaw the Dominion v. Channel trial the previous year.
Read Also – All You Need To Know About Sade Robinson Who Went Missing