A month in the past, Dominion Voting Programs appeared like a dragon slayer. The conservative information behemoth Fox Information had simply agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle a defamation go well with that was hours away from going to trial. It was the most important such settlement ever introduced by a media firm.
And but, to Dominion CEO John Poulos, even that payday probably gained’t be sufficient to save lots of his firm. The reputational injury Dominion has endured is simply too extreme, he tells TIME in a strikingly pessimistic interview in regards to the firm’s future.
“It’s simply simpler for our prospects to make use of one thing that’s not Dominion,” Poulos says. “We simply know that our enterprise finally goes to zero.”
Since Poulos integrated Dominion twenty years in the past, the corporate has grown into one of many largest suppliers of digital voting {hardware} and software program in America. But it surely wasn’t till the 2020 election that Dominion turned a family identify, after former President Donald Trump and his allies voiced conspiracy theories about it, together with baseless allegations that the corporate helped rig the election by flipping votes for Trump to Joe Biden. Some shops, like Fox Information, started to unfold these claims additional, sparking public anger towards the corporate. Earlier this 12 months, Shasta County in northern California ended its contract with Dominion regardless of not having a alternative vendor lined up.
Poulos describes a situation to TIME through which extra prospects start to flee. He says the corporate’s merchandise are sound, and that many of the authorities entities across the nation that use them wouldn’t resort to terminating their contracts early. But it surely’s a special story for when these contracts come up for renewal.
“Each time the subsequent time a buyer chooses to purchase a brand new system—as a result of each eight years or so, you exchange your voting system for obsolescence and for certification points—they’ll simply say, ‘Man, it’s simply not price going via the trouble simply to purchase Dominion,’” Poulos anticipates. “‘They may be rather less costly, they may be somewhat extra useful, their service providing may be somewhat higher. But it surely’s a lot mind injury working with them due to the general public outcry.’”
When requested to substantiate that he’s predicting Dominion will lose all its enterprise, Poulos doesn’t hesitate. “Finally, I believe all of our prospects will go a special path,” he says. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Dominion nonetheless has six different defamation circumstances pending, together with fits towards right-wing media corporations Newsmax and One America Information. The closely-watched litigation towards Fox Information led to the disclosure of texts and emails indicating that some at Fox had doubts in regards to the election fraud claims the community was peddling, in addition to embarrassing remarks by Tucker Carlson and different distinguished personalities mocking Trump and his claims that he had beat Biden. Simply earlier than the blockbuster case was set to go to trial, the events reached their historic settlement. One other election know-how firm, Smartmatic, has its personal $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit towards Fox Information shifting ahead.
Instantly after the settlement was introduced, Poulos says, Dominion skilled a spike in loss of life threats. Maintaining his workforce secure stays an organization precedence.
As for Dominion’s future, Poulos is taking it at some point at a time. The corporate continues to be centered on offering trusted voting methods to purchasers, with Poulos emphasizing that People do not need to belief Dominion blindly due to its dedication to transparency and its present functionality of manufacturing paper ballots. However that protection might come too late.
“It mainly put us right into a loss of life spiral,” Poulos says of the alleged defamation. “And by accusing us of the best American crime in historical past, it turned us, as one in all our prospects has described, as probably the most demonized model in america.”
Poulos says it stays to be seen whether or not the corporate can increase sufficient consciousness to counter the false claims about it that many People nonetheless imagine. However he’s optimistic that the Fox settlement and the continued authorized proceedings will, on the very least, assist curb misinformation.
“We actually hope that this places an finish to trusted media placing rankings and earnings above the pursuit of the reality,” he says.
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