The Onion, a satirical news company mocking current events and news personalities, purchased Alex Jones’ Infowars network in a bankruptcy auction Thursday held to help pay off a nearly $1.5 billion lawsuit.
The Onion’s bid on the sale was reportedly backed by the families of victims killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, who won a $1.4 billion settlement against Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, in 2022 after Jones repeatedly called the tragic shooting a hoax aimed at confiscating Americans’ firearms. Ben Collins, the chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said the parody outlet plans to recreate Infowars into a parody of itself by mocking “weird Internet personalities” by January 2025, according to The New York Times.
“The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash,” Collins said, CNN reported. “Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin.”
A judge in Houston, Texas, ruled in September that that Infowars could be auctioned to help Jones pay the families of the Sandy Hook victims, according to The New York Times.
Jones announced The Onion’s purchase in a video posted to X, where he accused the parody account and Democrats of trying to “silence the American people.”
“I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the U.S. trustee over our bankruptcy this morning and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning,” Jones said. “The Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us, they asked do they outbid, they said well ‘it was competitive.’ So they changed all the bidding rules, made it secret two days ago and I had a bad feeling, I told you that … I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m gonna be here until they come in here and turn the lights off, I’m gonna say ‘where’s your court order?’ So this is all going down right now, they want to silence the American people, but we’re not gonna be silenced.”
Infowars is being shut down now! pic.twitter.com/nb4loGvL12
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 14, 2024
Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence, said it will advertise on The Onion’s new version of Infowars, according to NBC News. The details of the auction and the amount The Onion bid on the Infowars is currently unknown.
After Jones falsely alleged that the families were involved in a staged hoax, relatives of 10 victims in Connecticut and Texas sued him in 2018 for defamation after suffering online abuse, death threats and personal confrontations from those who believed Jones’ theory. The shooting killed 20 first graders and 6 staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
An attorney representing several of the Connecticut families said true accountability meant the end of Infowars, according to NBC News.
“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” attorney Chris Mattei said in a statement. “By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm.”
Following the $1.4 billion lawsuit, Jones filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy in December 2022, while Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in July. A federal bankruptcy judge based in Houston, Texas, ruled in June that Jones must liquidate his personal assets to pay the families.
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