Voting technology company Smartmatic has fired off cease-and-desist letters, demanding retractions from Newsmax, One America News Network (OANN), and Fox News.
Smartmatic doesn’t refer to specific instances of allegedly defamatory reporting in its press release. Instead, the firm cites Fox News hosts Jesse Watters, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and guests Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell for helping election conspiracies gain traction.
The company further accuses Fox of promoting a misinformation campaign by publishing “demonstrably false information and defamatory statements.”
Business Insider’s Jacob Shamsian reports:
“Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes,” Smartmatic’s letter, addressed to Fox News executive vice president and general counsel Lily Fu Claffee, reads.
Smartmatic has also sent retraction demands and legal notices to One America News Network and Newsmax, two right-wing news outlets that pushed conspiracy theories about the company’s role in the election, a Smartmatic spokesperson confirmed to Insider.
Representatives for Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
“They have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence. This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately conducted elections,” Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said in a statement. “Our efforts are more than just about Smartmatic or any other company. This campaign is an attack on election systems and election workers in an effort to depress confidence in future elections and potentially counter the will of the voters, not just here, but in democracies around the world.”
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