Matt BlazeApr 19, 2023

Fox having to pay a substantial damages settlement to Dominion is a just outcome; their amplification of lies about malicious backdoors and rigged elections was contemptible and dangerous.

But we shouldn't conclude from this that US voting systems are perfectly or even adequately protected against attack. While great progress has been made, there's still a great deal of work left to do to make our elections truly secure and robust.

Show threadMatt BlazeApr 19, 2023
The best thing that Dominion could do with their infusion of cash from Fox - for both their reputation and for the good of democracy - would be to invest it into developing more robust, auditable election technology, such as optical scan systems with features to facilitate Risk-Limiting Audits.
Show threadMatt BlazeApr 19, 2023
I share people’s disappointment that there wasn’t a public trial. Fox did real damage to the country, and we deserve a reckoning. But the harm Fox (et al) did to the country wasn’t the issue in this suit. It was just about damage to Dominion. So any vindication we’d get about the harm done to the country would just have been a side effect of the trial, not the goal.
Show threadMatt BlazeApr 19, 2023

Fox has paid a price, in both cash and reputational harm. The case didn’t give us the dramatic public trial that might have been, but at least there was a great deal of deposition testimony and other discovery material put on the record. That’s ultimately a win for society, even if it was less dramatic and satisfying than we might have hoped.

And more cases are still in process.

Show threadMary Ann Horn
@mattblaze . We are too used to movie big bang endings!
Apr 19, 2023 at 9:40pmWeb