Fox News sued $1.6bn for spreading fake news about 2020 presidential election

The broadcaster is being sued a whopping $1.6 billion for spreading false information about Dominion Voting Systems during the US 2020 presidential election

Dominion have said Fox News’ claims that the company rigged the 2020 election were defamation.

The company, which operates in 28 states, are also suing Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, Trump’s personal lawyers. 

They argue the channel disseminated the fake news to “serve its own commercial processes.” 

False claims included that Dominion had manipulated votes via algorithms that had been created in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. 

As a result, Dominion say they were “severely injured”, and that Fox News caused “enormous and irreparable economic harm” - according to a copy of lawsuit documents obtained by the Associated Press.

The lawsuit also claims that company tried to correct Fox News on multiple occasions but were palmed off , and that as a result of their behaviour Dominion employees received abuse and death threats.

Trump lost over 50 legal challenges to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and even William Barr, Trump’s attorney general, rejected the claims of a "rigged election" alongside some Republicans. 

“The truth matters,” Dominion said.

“Lies have consequences.”

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on 6 January this year, with many shouting “Stop the steal!” as they attacked police officers, and left five dead; disinformation about the election is what triggered the events.

This isn’t the first lawsuit Fox News have faced over claims of election fraud, either.

Smartmatic USA, another electronic voting company, sued Fox News $2.7 billion in February alongside Trump’s personal lawyers, Giuliani and Powell. 

The company claim that they experienced severe financial losses as a result of false accusations about their voting systems, as well as death threats - including against an executive's 14-year-old son.