Satirical news outlet The Onion has finally landed a deal to take over Infowars, with the help of the families of Sandy Hook victims
Infowars is a right-wing media platform that was run by alt-right figure and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He gained notoriety for falsely claiming for years that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School never happened, and in 2022 was ordered to pay nearly $1billion in damages.
Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, and Infowars went to a bankruptcy auction, where it was bought by The Onion. This included the company’s intellectual property, including the website, customer lists, inventory and certain social media accounts, and the production equipment. The amount that The Onion paid in its winning bid has not been publicly disclosed.
However, in 2024, the sale was delayed by a judge to review appeals from Jones and another bidder who was reportedly linked to him. Elon Musk’s X Corp had, at the time, notified the court that the social media site was reserving its rights to the sale of accounts associated with Jones.
Now, after 17 months, the Onion has officially landed a deal to take over the site. Ben Collins, CEO of the Onion, has confirmed that the company has established a deal with Gregory Milligan, who was appointed by a bankruptcy court to manage the Infowars site, per Variety.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, will pay $81,000 per month to license the infowars.com domain name and associated intellectual property, including its name.
The deal will run for six months with an option to renew for another six months. The agreement must be approved by a judge before it takes effect.
The Onion say that in the coming weeks, and pending court approval, it will launch a new digital platform and comedy network at Infowars.com, led by creative director Tim Heidecker and head of programming Mia DiPasquale.
“A lot of institutions and people gave up on doing the right thing over the last two years. Despite an insane amount of threats and bullshit, we persevered,” Collins said in a statement. “Eight years, almost to the day, after the Sandy Hook parents first filed suit against Alex Jones, they’ll finally get some justice, and even some money. You will get a new home for funny things on the internet, a tote bag with a good logo on it and a great newspaper made by human beings in your real-life mailbox.”
The Onion said the plan was developed with the support of Sandy Hook families. “The Sandy Hook families took on Alex Jones to stop him from inflicting the same harm on others. For years, he used his corrupt business platform to torment and harass them for profit,” said Chris Mattel, partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder and attorney for the Sandy Hook families. “When Infowars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families’ courage and The Onion’s vision, persistence and stewardship.”
In 2022, Musk ruled out any chance of Jones returning to Twitter. The social media platform permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behaviour policy.
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