AUSTIN, Texas - Satirical newspaper The Onion was the winning bidder for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction and plan to use it to raise awareness about gun violence prevention.
The purchase of Infowars and its assets was supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to a release by nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety.
The nonprofit said the goal of the purchase is to "end Infowars' relentless barrage of disinformation."
Everytown for Gun Safety was named as the "launch advertiser" when the new site launches. The release states the new site is expected to go live in January 2025.
"It’s fitting that a platform once used to profit off of tragedy will be a tool of education, hence our multi-year advertising commitment to this new venture," John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said. "We’re proud to be a part of what comes next, not only in terms of staunching the flow of hurtful misinformation, but also for the potential this new venture has to help Everytown reach new audiences ready to hold the gun industry accountable for contributing to our nation’s gun violence epidemic."
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Alex Jones’ personal assets to be sold
A federal judge ordered the liquidation of Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets. He owes more than a billion dollars for lies he spread about the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.
The sale was part of Jones and media company Free Speech Systems' bankruptcy filings after the Sandy Hook families won $1.4 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments.
Proceeds from the auction go towards paying the families.
"From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. 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. After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm’s way," Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut plaintiffs and partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, said. "They are heroes, and it has been an honor and privilege to be their advocate throughout this fight. By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm."
Jones claimed the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut was a hoax.
"Everytown 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 nonprofit said in a statement.
Jones acknowledged the auction's outcome on social media platform, X, Thursday morning.
"My lawyers and folks met with the U.S. Trustee over our bankruptcy this morning and they said they're shutting us down even without a court order," Jones said.
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Alex Jones ordered to pay $965 million for Sandy Hook hoax claims
Jurors ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Wednesday to pay nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ relatives and an FBI agent, who said he turned their loss and trauma into years of torment by promoting the lie that the rampage was a hoax.
Jones was still broadcasting on Thursday morning on X.
Jones said on his show Wednesday that he had already been working on a new studio to continue his show regardless of the outcome of the auction.
Relatives of the victims said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and his followers’ actions. They testified about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.
Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shooting happened.
The Onion is a satirical website that touts itself as "the world's leading news publication" and a daily readership of 4.3 trillion.
The organization has long pushed for change in gun regulations and gun violence prevention through its story "‘No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens," which first appeared on the site in 2014 and has been rerun 37 times with only the location and number of victims changed for each mass shooting.