A wave of lawsuits all ending in settlements have shown defamation is not going to save us from election misinformation

As voting got underway for the 2024 US presidential election, the voting technology company Smartmatic and the conservative outlet Newsmax reached an agreement about election lies in the last one.

Smartmatic settled a separate defamation lawsuit with One America News Network (OANN), another far right network, earlier this year in a confidential settlement. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Atlanta election workers who faced vicious harassment after various networks spread false claims about them, settled with OANN in 2022. Eric Coomer, a former Dominion employee, settled with Newsmax in 2021. Dominion, another voting equipment company, settled with Fox for $787.5m on the eve of trial.