LYING LAWYERS

In trying to support the outrageous claim that the election had been stolen from Donald Trump, lawyer Rudy Giuliani made some charges against voting machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. He claimed that they were manufactured in Venezuela. Since Venezuela has a Socialist government, the place of manufacture would make them seem less trustworthy. Actually, the machines were made in Canada. Trump also claimed that the machines had been programmed to flip votes. Not only that, but according to Giuliani, in one Michigan county, they had flipped 6,000 votes from Trump to Biden. The charges had been backed up by an expert. As it turned out, Giuliani’s “expert” had a grave misunderstanding of the county’s voting system and a lack of knowledge of election technology.

Everything about Giuliani’s charge was false, but the lies were harmful to Dominion Voting Systems, so they sued the lawyer for $1.3 billion. Another lawyer, Sydney Powell, worked with Giuliani. She made essentially the same false charges against Dominion Voting Systems. The company sued her too, also for $1.3 billion. Lies create damage, so it is appropriate that liars pay for the damage they create.

Suing merchants of misinformation seems a better way to deal with them than passing laws. Unfortunately governments can’t be trusted. For the past four years Republican politicians have gone along with Trump’s lies, either through fear or cynical desire to use him to accomplish their goals at any cost. A few good lawsuits would make these people stop and think before they spout their poison.

Still more needs to be done. A lot of political misstatements have ben published in the social media. Apple CEO Tim Cook referred to the social media as “Purveyors of fake news.” These purveyors of fake news don’t have to worry because they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Act. Section 230 protects media from damages caused by misinformation posted by users on their sites.

It is time to end that protection. If social media sites were held responsible for toxic posts that they allow on their sites, there would not be so many venomous lies spread over the internet.