Satire newspaper The Onion has purchased Infowars, the media organization run by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed price in a court-ordered auction.
The Onion said the deal was secured through support from the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, who won a $1.5 billion (US$1.18 billion) defamation lawsuit. pounds sterling) against Jones for spreading false rumors about the massacre.
A Texas judge ordered the auction in September, and various groups — both allies and detractors of Jones — had suggested they would bid for the company.
Jones founded Infowars in 1999. He vowed to continue broadcasting using a different platform.
In a rambling video message released Thursday morning, Jones called the takeover a “total attack on free speech.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to stay here until they come in and turn the lights out,” he said. “It’s the tyranny of the New World Order, desperate to silence the American people, Trump’s mandate against all laws – they don’t care.”
The Onion plans to rebuild the website and feature well-known humor writers and content creators on the Internet.
“We plan to make this a very funny, very silly website,” Ben Collins, a former NBC News reporter and chief executive of The Onion's parent company, said in a statement.
The website also published a farcical article, claiming that Infowars “has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society.”
The article goes on to claim that the satirical publication “outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars” and “forced him to sell it at a very bargain price: less than a trillion dollars.”
An attorney for the families of eight of the Sandy Hook victims said the application has their support.
“By divesting Jones from Infowars’ assets, The Onion’s families and team have performed a public service and will significantly hinder Jones’ ability to do further harm,” attorney Chris Mattei said in a statement.
Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died in the Sandy Hook attack, said: 'The world needs to understand that having a platform doesn't mean you are above responsibility – the dissolution of Alex's assets Jones and the death of Infowars are the justice we have. long awaited and for which we fought.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control nonprofit, said it has an agreement to advertise on the new site.
Jones was a fringe figure who broadcast in Austin, Texas, in the 1990s and went on to build an audience of millions with a mix of opinions, speculation and outright fabrications. The company makes most of its money through an online store selling vitamins and other products.
Over time, Infowars has been increasingly adopted by Donald Trump's allies and supporters. During his first campaign for president, Trump appeared on Infowars and told Jones, “Your reputation is incredible. I won't let you down.
The company's — and Jones' — financial woes stem from broadcasts following the December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Twenty young children and six school staff were killed in the attack.
After the murders, Jones and his guests on his shows repeatedly questioned whether the massacre had actually occurred, circulating conspiracy theories about whether the killings had been faked or carried out by government agents.
At one point, Jones called the attack a “giant hoax” and in 2015 he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake movie with actors, in my opinion, fabricated…I clearly knew that they had actors there, but I thought they killed some. real kids, and it shows how daring they are, that they clearly used actors.”
Followers of Jones' web of conspiracy theories have harassed the families of Sandy Hook victims, in some cases sending them photos of their dead children or tombstones and posting their personal information online.
Some went to Newtown to “investigate” and several people were arrested in connection with the harassment of the victims.
Jones later acknowledged that the killings were real and insisted that his statements were covered by U.S. free speech protections.
But the victims' relatives won defamation judgments against Jones and his company over his false statements.
He declared bankruptcy in 2022 while the Sandy Hook case was going through the courts, and in June 2024 a judge ordered the liquidation of Jones' personal assets. This included a multimillion-dollar ranch, other properties, cars, boats and guns, totaling about $8.6 million, according to a court filing.
