Satirical news firm The Onion buys conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars in auction

Alex Jones announced the sale of his empire to The Onion on X.

Published on: Nov 14, 2024, 21:00:26 IST

By HT News Desk

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The Onion, the satirical news company which used to mock conspiracy theorist Alex Jones through its content, has acquired the latter's media empire, including the far-right website InfoWars.

InfoWars, the conspiracy website, used to serve as Jones' main platform.

Alex Jones announced the sale of his empire to The Onion on X.

"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. The Connecticut democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us," he wrote on X.

A person with knowledge of the sale told NBC News that the Onion will shut down InfoWars. It will later rebuild the website and post content created by well-known humour writers.

Jones used to run a radio show. It later turned into an internet video operation which reportedly peddled content about bizarre claims about conspiracies.

The company was auctioned off on Wednesday. It isn't known how much money was offered to the parent company of InfoWars, Free Speech Systems.

The proceeds from the sale of the company will be used to pay Jones' creditors, including the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.

Also read: Who is Alex Jones? Peering into the life of America's notorious conspiracy theorist

He is required to pay damages to the families.

The families of the victims had filed lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas claiming Jones defamed them on his show and inflicted emotional distress. They said the shooting, in which 20 children died, was fake.

The courts granted $1.5 billion to the families in lawsuits. However, Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2022 as he couldn't pay up the enormous amount.

A court later allowed him to liquidate his assets.

“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,” Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut families said in a statement.

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HT News Desk
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