Infowars conspiracy website bought by The Onion

The American far-right conspiracy theorist website Infowars has been purchased by satirical news publication The Onion, according to court documents filed on Thursday.

The Onion won the bidding for the fake news platform at a bankruptcy auction with support from the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who reportedly waived part of the $1 billion owed to them in compensation by Infowars founder and host Alex Jones after he called the massacre a hoax.

The defamation case brought by the Sandy Hook families led Jones to file for bankruptcy in 2022 and auction his assets, including the Infowars website, social media accounts, video archive, trademarks and recording studio in Austin, Texas.

The sale price was not immediately made public.

Infowars: From lies to satire

"The dissolution of Alex Jones' assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for," Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.

The Onion, a popular satirical online newspaper that publishes clearly absurd stories in such a style as to make them appear believable, said it aimed to replace "Infowars' relentless barrage of disinformation" with its own "relentless barrage of humor."

"The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site's users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash," said CEO Ben Collins. "Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin."

In its famed style, The Onion published a story claiming to be written by Bryce P. Tetraeder, Global Tetrahedron CEO, explaining why he had bought Infowars.

"They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon," the fictional CEO wrote.

Alex Jones' Infowars website shut down mid-broadcast

Jones himself confirmed the acquisition of Infowars by The Onion on Thursday morning and said he planned to file legal challenges to stop it.

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, he said: "Last broadcast now live from Infowars studios. They are in the building. Are ordering shutdown without court approval."

Appearing panicked and angry, he then proceeded to broadcast live on the Infowars homepage with fellow conspiracist and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon until the domain was abruptly shut down.

The broadcast continued on X, where it was watched live by an audience of over 700,000 people.

The Onion reportedly wants to have the Infowars website transition to its own content by January 2025 and announced that the gun violence prevention organization "Everytown for Gun Safety" would be its "exclusive launch advertiser."

"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," it said in a statement.

mf/ab (AP, Reuters)