The Onion has agreed to amass Infowars, the far-right website created by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a deal backed by households of victims of the mass taking pictures at Sandy Hook Elementary College.
The US satirical web site on Thursday mentioned that it had received the chapter public sale for the media enterprise managed by Jones, the controversial right-wing media influencer. No worth was disclosed.
Infowars had been auctioned to pay settlements to the households of the Sandy Hook taking pictures victims. Jones was ordered to pay them virtually $1.5bn in damages in defamation verdicts after calling the 2012 bloodbath in Connecticut a hoax.
The Onion mentioned its aim was to finish Infowars’ “relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of promoting dietary supplements and change it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good”.
“The Onion is proud to amass InfoWars, and we look ahead to persevering with its storied custom of scaring the positioning’s customers with lies till they fork over their chilly, laborious money,” chief govt Ben Collins mentioned. “Or bitcoin. We may also settle for bitcoin.”
Jones was compelled to file for chapter in 2022 after the Sandy Hook households efficiently sued the media host for his repeated false claims in regards to the bloodbath wherein 20 kids and 6 academics had been killed.
The households have agreed to “forgo a portion of their restoration to extend the general worth of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success”, they mentioned in a press release.
As a part of the deal, The Onion has acquired Free Speech Programs, the father or mother firm of Infowars, with its web site, buyer lists, social media accounts, manufacturing gear and Texas studio, logos and video archive.
The Onion is owned by International Tetrahedron, the media group backed by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson. It mentioned that gun management group Everytown for Gun Security can be the “unique launch advertiser” for a relaunched Infowars web site subsequent 12 months, which is predicted to hold satirical content material.
The Onion, which carries the tagline “America’s Most interesting Information Supply”, has lampooned the types of content material carried by Jones’ Infowars up to now, with a collection of tales following shootings within the US over the previous few years carrying the identical headline: “‘No Approach to Forestall This,’ Says Solely Nation The place This Commonly Occurs.”
Jones confirmed on X on Thursday that Infowars was being shut down “with out a courtroom order this morning . . . The Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper purchased us”.
Jones has promised a authorized problem to the deal, and in addition mentioned that he’ll proceed to broadcast over a special platform.
Chris Mattei, legal professional for the households and associate at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, mentioned the households had “rejected Jones’ hole presents for allegedly extra money if they’d solely let him keep on the air as a result of doing so would have put different households in hurt’s means”.
Regardless of social media platforms together with Fb and YouTube blocking content material from InfoWars, the positioning continues to draw an viewers. InfoWars.com drew 6.6mn visits in October, in accordance with Similarweb.
The Onion plans to relaunch the positioning in January.
