Satirical news publication The Onion said Thursday it won a bankruptcy auction for Infowars, the conspiracy theory platform founded by Alex Jones – who owes more than $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims after calling the massacre a hoax.
The Onion’s bid was backed by the families of the shooting victims in the battle to gain control of Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems.
“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was among the 20 children killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.
Ben Collins, the Chief Executive of Onion-parent Global Tetrahedron told The New York Times that he plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a parody of itself, making fun of “weird internet personalities” like Jones who spreads misinformation and sells health supplements on Amazon.
“We thought this would be a hilarious joke,” Collins said. “This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane.”
Collins declined to disclose the price it paid for Infowars and its assets, including its production studio and diet supplement business.
Jones confirmed The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars in a video posted to X Thursday and said he planned to file legal challenges to stop it. He was broadcasting live from the Infowars studio and seemed visibly upset, putting his head in his hand at his desk.
“Last broadcast now live from Infowars studios. They are in the building. Are ordering shutdown without court approval,” Jones said.
Family members of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting sued Jones in Connecticut Superior Court in 2018 after he spread the baseless claim that the massacre was a fabricated pretext to take Americans’ guns.
The sale comes after a Houston judge ruled in September that Infowars and the other assets owned by Free Speech Systems could be auctioned off in bankruptcy to compensate Jones’ creditors, which include the families of Sandy Hook victims.
Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit committed to ending gun violence that was founded after the Sandy Hook shooting, will advertise on a relaunched version of the site under The Onion, the Times reported.
The Onion declined to disclose details of the ad deal, but said it will include banner ads and sponsored articles on the site.
While Everytown and The Onion may seem like an odd pairing, Everytown president John Feinblatt told the Times that the two organizations share an interest in stopping gun violence.
He pointed to The Onion’s often shared viral headline after a school shooting: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
“This was an opportunity for us to give The Onion the facts, the storytelling, the data and the research that’s at our fingertips,” Feinblatt said. “And for them to give us the creativity of how to turn all of that information into new messaging to a new audience.”
Collins noted that the relaunched Infowars might publish its own satirical stories on the gun violence epidemic in America to sponsored content from Everytown.
Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, applauded the acquisition of Infowars.
“By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’s ability to do more harm,” Mattei said.
Collins added: “They’re all human beings with senses of humor who want fun things to happen and want good things to take place in their lives. They want to be part of something good and positive too.”
The Onion was sold by G/O Media in April to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron, backed by Jeff Lawson, co-founder of tech firm Twilio.
It relaunched the site’s print edition in August.
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