Trump-ally media outlet OAN quietly deleted articles about Dominion despite publicly doubling down on election conspiracy theories
Jacob Shamsian- Dominion
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One America News hasn't issued a retraction notice after taking down articles about Dominion, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and others.
- Far-right media outlet One America News has removed articles about Dominion without telling anyone.
- The election technology company is pursuing litigation against figures who spread conspiracy theories about it.
- OAN previously sent letters to Dominion doubling down on the conspiracy theories.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
One America News has quietly scrubbed its website of references to election conspiracy theories, a possible attempt to fend off a lawsuit from the election technology companies it had targeted in its stories.
For months, the Trump-allied media organization has published stories about Dominion Voting Systems and perpetuated the false conspiracy theory that the company rigged the 2020 presidential election for President Joe Biden at the expense of former president Donald Trump.
But some time in January, OAN removed stories about Dominion from its website. It has also removed stories about Smartmatic, a rival election technology company also targeted in the conspiracy theories.
Stories about Sidney Powell , Rudy Giuliani, and Lin Wood - the three biggest champions of the false theories - have been removed as well.
A review of the "Dominion Voting Systems" category tag on OAN's website shows just one article , published on January 4, about a "MAGA victory rally" in Georgia. But the Wayback Machine, which creates historical archives of websites, shows more than a dozen stories published with that category tag up until January 14 , a week after Dominion filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Powell .
The deleted articles that used the "Dominion Voting Systems" category tag includes stories based on false claims, such as Sidney Powell claiming Dominion had a "vote switch algorithm," Giuliani claiming the supposed algorithm created a specific margin for Biden's victory , and an interview with someone claiming a Dominion executive has secret ties to Antifa .
The category tag on OAN's website for Sidney Powell , an attorney who became a right-wing celebrity while pushing four failed lawsuits seeking to overturn election results based on conspiracy theories, also shows only one story, which mentions Twitter banning her for spreading election conspiracy theories in the wake of the Capitol riot that left five people dead.
The Wayback Machine's records show that the website previously hosted three other articles about Powell, which were also available on the website until January 14.
The Wayback Machine pages for category tags for Giuliani, Trump's personal and campaign lawyer pushing conspiracy theories, as well as pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood, also show that articles were wiped from OAN's website.
OAN has also removed at least two stories with the category tag "Smartmatic," a technology company that rivals Dominion, which conspiracy theorists claimed formed the secret link between the 2020 American election results and the regime of now-dead Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
A spokesperson for Dominion said OAN has "not been in contact with us about any articles they have removed."
OAN hasn't given public notice of the removals
Legitimate news organizations normally issue retraction notices or editors' notes when stories have been removed or significantly corrected.
Those notes are generally designed to demonstrate transparency, attempt to retain the trust of readers, or simply show that the news organization is complying with a court order.
But despite the mass removals, OAN has not given any public notice of those actions. The links to the removed articles do not lead to a retraction notice, but to a 404 page.
OAN's purge of articles about Dominion does not appear to be comprehensive. A simple search for "Dominion" on the website brings up a story headlined "Tech Expert Reveals Ga. Voting Machines Connected To Chinese Vendor." It's based on comments from a person named Jovan Pulitzer, whose claims have been repudiated by Georgia's secretary of state . The media organization's YouTube page also appears to show several video segments about Dominion.
Representatives for OAN didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Dominion has threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against OAN
OAN has competed with Fox News and Newsmax to capture an audience of Trump fans , regularly trafficking in falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
And unlike Fox News and Newsmax, it has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, even as he took office Wednesday.
The media organization has found an audience with former President Donald Trump himself, who in November tweeted out its segment "Dominion-izing the vote," featuring OAN host Chanel Rion. The segment included QAnon advocate Ron Watkins as a cybersecurity "expert" who said Dominion's software was vulnerable to hacks that allowed it to switch votes from Trump to Biden.
OAN's coverage borrowed heavily from Powell's failed lawsuits. Watkins, for example, was included as an affiant in Powell's lawsuits , even though he has no known experience in election security.
In December, Tom Clare, a defamation attorney representing Dominion, sent document retention letters to dozens of Trump allies, including Powell , Giuliani , the White House counsel's office, Fox News , Newsmax, and others.
Clare also sent letters to OAN's CEO, Robert Herring, and president, Charles Herring, warning of "imminent" litigation. Clare said the lies had led to death threats against its employees and demanded public retractions and apologies for OAN's stories
In response, OAN doubled down on conspiracy theories . In letters to Dominion obtained by Insider, OAN demanded the election technology company retain documents related to its links to Venezuela, George Soros, Smartmatic, and "the Fire that destroyed thousands of voting machines in Caracas, Venezuela" in March 2020 - all subjects Dominion says it has no links to whatsoever.
Dominion has since gone on the offensive, filing the $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Powell on January 8 .
"These false allegations have caused catastrophic damage to this company. They have branded Dominion, a voting company, as perpetrating a massive fraud," Clare said at a Zoom press conference at the time. "Those allegations triggered a media firestorm that promoted those same false claims to a global audience."
Dominion CEO John Poulos also said he's weighing whether to sue Trump , who hasn't responded to Dominion's litigation threats. Trump's YouTube page still hosts the full 30-minute "Dominion-izing the vote" video, even though it no longer appears on OAN's own YouTube page or website.
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