The Onion acquired Infowars out of bankruptcy
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The Onion has agreed to acquire Infowars, the far-right website created by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a deal backed by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The US satirical website said on Thursday it had won a bankruptcy auction for the media business controlled by controversial right-wing media influencer Jones. No price has been disclosed.
Infowars was auctioned off to compensate the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. Jones was ordered to pay them nearly $1.5 billion in damages in defamation judgments after calling massacre in 2012 in Connecticut a hoax.
The Onion says its goal is to end Infowars’ “relentless barrage of misinformation aimed at selling dietary supplements” and replace it with The Onion’s nonstop barrage of humor.
“The Onion is proud to acquire InfoWars, and we look forward to continuing our long tradition of scaring site users with lies until they hand over their money,” said CEO Ben Collins. my cold face”. “Or bitcoins. We will also accept bitcoin.”
Jones obliged file for bankruptcy in 2022 after the Sandy Hook family successfully sued the media host for repeatedly making false statements about the massacre that left 20 children and six teachers dead.
They said in a statement that the families had agreed to “give up a portion of the recovered funds to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, making it successful.”
As part of the deal, The Onion acquired Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, with its website, client list, social media accounts, production and studio equipment, branding and archives. videos in Texas.
The Onion is owned by Global Tetrahedron, the media conglomerate backed by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson. They said gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety will be the “exclusive launch advertiser” for the relaunched Infowars website next year, which is expected to carry satirical content.
The Onion, which carries the tagline “America’s Best News Source,” has criticized the types of content previously provided by Jones’ Infowars, with a series of stories following US shootings over the past few years that have the same focus. topic: “ ‘There is no way to stop this’, says Only Nation where this happens regularly.
Jones confirmed on X on Thursday that Infowars would be shut down “without a court order this morning. . . The Connecticut Democratic Party with The Onion newspaper bought us out.”
Jones has promised a legal challenge to the deal and also said he will continue broadcasting on another platform.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families and a partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, said the families had “rejected Jones’ hollow offers for more money if they would just let him stay on the air because doing so would put other families in danger.” ”.
Despite social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube blocking content from InfoWars, the site continues to attract audiences. InfoWars.com attracted 6.6 million visits in October, according to Similarweb.
The Onion plans to relaunch the site in January.
