Vice finds itself in a lawsuit battle as The Daily Beast reports that a ShotSpotter, a technology surveillance company and the focal point of critical coverage by Vice, is suing for $300-million in damages.
Last Monday, the complaint filed in a Delaware court by ShotSpotter was due to a series of Vice articles casting skepticism on the service’s practices and effectiveness.
“We want to correct the record, and we want to hold them to account for their defamatory campaign, which has caused damage, compromising future contracts, damaging business relationships and our reputation,” ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark said. “It has also damaged our company’s enterprise value causing our stock price to fall.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Vice for comment, but they did not immediately respond to the lawsuit. Vice’s tech news and investigations have drafted at least six reports concerning the surveillance service in the last several years.
Vice’s stories lean massively on publicly available court records and testimony of experts and public defenders who have a perceived issue with the reliability of ShotSpotter’s technology.
However, the audio surveillance company insisted that Vice took the quotes out of context and neglected to highlight cases where the company’s technology was used successfully during both prosecutions and defenses.
“VICE’s defamatory implications about ShotSpotter are false,” the lawsuit alleged. “ShotSpotter does not fabricate gunshots or alter evidence. No court has ever concluded otherwise, nor have ShotSpotter’s experts ever testified otherwise.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
