Satirical media The onion purchased InfoWars, the right-wing online platform run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a court-ordered auction. The purchase was confirmed in a video Thursday by Jones himself, as well as the director of the parent company of The onion.
The onion He plans to rebuild the website and have well-known humor writers and Internet content creators work on it. CEO Ben Collins explained this in an article on Bluesky this Thursday: “The onionwith the help of the Sandy Hook families, purchased InfoWars. We plan to make this a very fun and very silly website. “We enlisted the services of some Hall of Famers from Onion and Clickhole to make this happen.” “I can’t wait to show you what we’ve been cooking,” Collins added.
For his part, Jones said in a video shared on the social network The onion “They bought us.” Immediately after the news became public, Jones began broadcasting live on X and criticizing the sale of InfoWars. Jones told viewers it was “a great honor to be here to challenge the bullies.”
The purchase includes acquiring Jones’ company’s intellectual property, as well as its website, customer lists, inventory and certain social media accounts, as well as its production equipment, according to CNN. The amount of the offer is not known.
The sale comes after a judge earlier this year ordered Jones to liquidate his personal assets, in order to recoup the $1.4 billion he must pay to the families of victims of the Sandy school shooting Hook in 2012 – who killed 20 first graders and six of the educators – after relatives sued him for defamation because he falsely claimed the shooting was a hoax and that they were actors participating in a conspiracy of the American government aimed at confiscating citizens’ weapons. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy in 2022.
An attorney representing the families told CNN that the families “agreed to forgo a portion of their compensation to increase the overall value of the settlement offer.” The onionthus enabling its success. “After surviving an unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ empty offers, which were supposed to give them more money if they allowed him to continue broadcasting, because it would have put other families at risk. danger,” said Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the corporate families.
In a social media post earlier this week, Mattei added that “this week’s disbandment of Infowars is just the beginning of Alex Jones’ lesson in responsibility” and that the families “will come after their future income and for the new owners of Infowars to take action. as a vehicle for Jones’ continued control over the company.
