Fox News faces lawsuit for alleging poll fabrications

Washington, March 27 American media network Fox News is facing a lawsuit for the alleged spreading and reinforcing of lies about the results of the November 3, 2020, presidential election.

Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest election equipment manufacturers in the US, filed the defamation lawsuit on Friday against Fox News in the state of Delaware, saying the network spread false claims that the voting machine company was involved in voter fraud, reports Xinhua news agency.

Dominion was seeking at least $1.6 billion in lost profits and enterprise value, plus more than $1 million in security expenses and expenses combating disinformation.

According to Dominion, the incessant conspiracy theories floated by Fox have damaged its credibility and reputation, costing it millions in revenue.

"Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process," the filing read.

In a defiant response, Fox News issued a statement on Friday, saying that it "is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court".

Dominion was not the only election technology company to say it was targeted by Fox News.

Smartmatic, an electronic voting systems maker, filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against the network last month, saying that the media group had accused it of helping rig the election in favour of incumbent President Joe Biden.

Fox News filed motions seeking to dismiss the Smartmatic lawsuit, claiming it was "meritless" and defended its reporting.

Fox News was created by billionaire Rupert Murdoch in 1996.

( With inputs from IANS )