One of the most controversial platforms on the internet might have a new owner, as the satirical news publication The Onion is trying to purchase the far-right website Infowars. Infowars was sold at auction out of bankruptcy, and the transaction would end control of the website by its longtime owner and founder, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones has long been a lightning rod figure, and was forced to put Infowars up for sale after losing a Connecticut-based defamation lawsuit, putting him on the hook for $1.5 billion in damages. But The Onion and its parent company, Global Tetrahedron LLC, intend to keep Infowars alive if the deal closes — something that Jones and his lawyers are trying to prevent.
Why did The Onion buy Infowars?
The satirical news website is trying to purchase Infowars mainly to help pay the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, most of whom are Jones’ estate creditors. Jones was sued for defamation by the families for claiming on his show that the massacre “was performed by actors following a script written by government officials to bolster the push for gun control,” said ABC News. A $1.4 billion verdict was handed down against Jones in 2022. However, the Sandy Hook families have not seen any of this money because Jones filed for bankruptcy and moved to liquidate his assets.
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The Onion’s bid for the website was reportedly $1.75 million, and the Sandy Hook families “agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success,” said ABC News. Infowars “has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society,” Global Tetrahedron CEO Bryce P. Tetraeder said in an article. In keeping with The Onion’s satirical style, The Onion plans on making Infowars a “very funny, very stupid website,” the site’s CEO, Ben Collins, said on social media.
But Jones is not going down without a fight After The Onion purchased Infowars, the judge for Jones’ bankruptcy case paused the sale and “ordered an evidentiary hearing” to “determine if the auction was conducted fairly, which could delay the process” of the deal, said The Guardian. Jones himself is also suing The Onion, calling the deal unfair and “sheer nonsense.” The sale is going to that evidentiary hearing, and “I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” said Judge Christopher Lopez, though he added, “I personally don’t care who wins the auction. I care about process and transparency.”
What happens to Infowars?
The specifics of what The Onion will do with Infowars if the sale goes through have not been fleshed out, but it has been made clear that the site will not be closed down completely. Rather, The Onion will “shutter Jones’ Infowars and rebuild the website, featuring well-known internet humor writers and content creators,” said NBC News. It is expected to launch the new site in January 2025.
Beyond this, The Onion also set up a partnership with the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, in which the group will have an “exclusive advertising deal” for gun safety promotions, said CNN. Everytown was established in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting and is now the largest gun control group in the U.S.
Everytown and The Onion “will continue to raise awareness on Infowars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives backed by Everytown,” the organization said in a press release. Gun control has long played a role in The Onion’s stories. The website has published a satirical article, “‘No Way To Prevent This’, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” 37 times since 2014.
