Who is suing Fox News? What to know about Dominion Voting Systems.
The trial over allegations that Fox News knowingly aired false information during the 2020 presidential election cycle is bringing an otherwise unknown software company into the spotlight.
A lawsuit that settled this week in Delaware, alleging that Fox News knowingly aired false information during the 2020 presidential election cycle, brought an otherwise unknown software company into the spotlight.
Dominion Voting Systems is one of the largest election tech providers in the country. It sells and licenses its voting software and tabulation machines to more than half of the country’s states.
As noted by The New York Times, Dominion was incorporated in Toronto in 2003. The company is named after Canada’s 1920 Dominion Elections Act, which allowed women and other underrepresented groups to vote.
The company’s founder, John Poulos, started the company in his basement. He wanted to make the voting experience easier for people with disabilities. Dominion technology included elements like audio readouts and large text reading screens.
The company expanded to the United States in 2009. It is headquartered in Denver, Colo.
Dominion sued Fox News, claiming that the broadcast network and its hosts knowingly aired false information about its voting machines and software. The parties reached a settlement Tuesday, after a jury had been selected.
In an interview last year for 60 Minutes, Poulos told Anderson Cooper that Fox’s statements about his company had caused irreparable damage to Dominion’s reputation, his employees, and his family.
”People have been put into danger. Their families have been put into danger. Their lives have been upended and all because of lies,” Poulos said. “It was a very clear calculation that they knew they were lies. And they were repeating them and endorsing them.”
The founder added that his kids aren’t allowed to receive packages delivered to his family’s home until they verify their origins because of the extreme reactions Fox’s coverage prompted from its followers.