A voting engineering firm swept up in baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election mentioned on Monday that it had sent lawful notices to Fox News and two other ideal-wing media organizations for participating in a “disinformation marketing campaign” aimed at harmful it.
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 20: The News Corp. setting up on 6th Avenue, dwelling to Fox News, the New York Write-up and the Wall Street Journal, on March 20, 2019 in New York City, New York. Disney acquired Fox today in a $71.3 million offer. (Photograph by Kevin Hagen/Getty Pictures)
The firm, Smartmatic, stated that Fox Information, One America News, and Newsmax have helped distribute false and defamatory promises that are not supported by real proof and could effortlessly have been debunked with standard analysis.

“They have no evidence to aid their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence,” Smartmatic main executive Antonio Mugica explained in a assertion. “This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately done elections.”
As President Donald Trump continues to assault the integrity of the voting technique, some of his allies have homed in on Smartmatic for the reason that of the providers it supplied Los Angeles County for the 2020 election.
The baseless conspiracy theories peddled about Smartmatic, which mimic those pushed versus Dominion Voting Units, falsely advise that the company’s technologies authorized the November vote to be rigged versus Trump. Some strains of the conspiracy concept have aimed to tie the company to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who is portrayed as a boogeyman in right-wing media.
In its legal notice to Fox Information, Smartmatic identified a number of situations in which these theories were spread on its air by either Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani or previous Trump campaign law firm Sidney Powell. The lawful see, which said assertions made about Chavez and Soros have no fact to them, also determined instances in which the network’s pro-Trump propagandists, such as Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, assisted spread wrong info.
“Fox Information embarked on a disinformation campaign in opposition to Smartmatic soon after the election closed and continuing now,” the lawful detect stated. “Around the program of the marketing campaign, Fox Information published and republished dozens of wrong and misleading statements pertaining to Smartmatic.”
The legal recognize claimed it thought Fox News has “no proof or credible resource to support” the phony statements produced on its air and said the community “would have easily found the falsity of the statements and implications remaining built about Smartmatic by accomplishing even a modicum of investigation.”
“Smartmatic needs a full and comprehensive retraction of all false and defamatory statements and experiences published by Fox Information,” the authorized detect added. “This retraction ought to be done with the very same depth and degree of protection that you made use of to defame the organization in the first put.”
Smartmatic, which reported it is reserving its lawful proper to go after possible defamation promises towards Fox News, 1 The united states News, and Newsmax, explained its response to the conspiracy theories are “more than just about Smartmatic or any other business.”
“This marketing campaign is an attack on election techniques and election personnel in an work to depress self-confidence in foreseeable future elections and most likely counter the will of the voters, not just here, but in democracies close to the entire world,” Mugica claimed.
A spokesperson for Fox News did not respond to several requests for remark. Neither did a representative for 1 The usa Information, the compact ideal-wing channel to which Smartmatic also sent a lawful detect.
Newsmax claimed in a assertion that it itself had “under no circumstances built a declare of impropriety about Smartmatic, its possession or application.”
“Men and women, such as plaintiff’s attorneys, Congressmen and some others, have appeared on Newsmax boosting questions about the company and its voting software, citing lawful paperwork or formerly printed reports about Smartmatic,” Newsmax extra in its statement. “As any big media outlet, we provide a forum for public problems and discussion. In the previous we have welcomed Smartmatic and its representatives to counter this sort of statements they imagine to be inaccurate and will continue to do so.”
Smartmatic is not the only election technological innovation firm that has been compelled to forcefully thrust again against baseless conspiracy theories targeting it.
In November, elections protection firm Scytl poured cold water on conspiracy theories about it that experienced been circulated about it by right-wing media and a Republican congressman.
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