A voting software company can proceed with its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News’ parent company, a Delaware judge ruled on Tuesday. In attempting to hold Fox Corp. liable for Fox News’ amplification of false claims around voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Dominion Voting Systems Inc. “adequately” proved “actual malice” on the part of company leadership, the judge wrote. Specifically, although Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch did not personally believe in former President Donald Trump’s false claims, Dominion’s suit states, he “nevertheless encouraged on-air personalities to perpetuate these baseless claims.” The judge added that “reasonable” inference permitted the belief that Murdoch and his son, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, “either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth.” The judge did, however, dismiss Dominion’s claim against Fox Broadcasting, finding that there was “no factual support” for an accusation that the company subsidiary had propagated misinformation by reposting election lies.
