The Onion wins Alex Jones’ Infowars auction, backed by Sandy Hook victims

Satirical news website The Onion has won the bidding for Infowars, Alex Jones’ far-right online outlet known for spreading conspiracy theories, at a bankruptcy auction.
The transaction “comes with full support” of families of the victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, though financial details have not been disclosed.
The deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history — which left 26 people dead, including 20 kids — was repeatedly called a hoax by Jones, a notorious conspiracy theorist who now owes who owes nearly $1.5 billion to the families of victims he defamed.
The eight Connecticut families who successfully sued Jones for defamation have agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily News on Thursday.
The acquisition is designed to end Infowars’ “relentless barrage of disinformation” by replacing it with “The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good,” the company said Thursday in a news release. It comes after a bankruptcy judge ordered an auction of Jones’ assets to help pay $1.44 billion in defamation judgments — the result of a years-long effort to hold him accountable for the “immense pain he caused and from which he profited.”
“The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability — the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, the father of a young girl killed in the massacre, said in a statement shared with The News.
The Michael Bloomberg-founded nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for gun control and against gun violence, has been announced as the site’s exclusive launch advertiser.
The winning bid means The Onion will now run Infowars’ website, trademarks, video archive, certain social media accounts, a studio in Austin, Texas and “production equipment used to put Jones on the air.”
“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 Onion said in a statement.
The president of the gun violence prevention organization, John Feinblatt, welcomed the news confirming a multi-year advertising agreement with the new venture.
“It’s fitting that a platform once used to profit off of tragedy will be a tool of education,” Feinblatt said.
In a video posted on X Thursday morning, Jones said that “the Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper” had won the bidding. He vowed to challenge the acquisition in court.
A spokesperson for The Onion said a new Infowars platform is expected to launch in January 2025, while its new owners have begun work “to immediately transition the current site.”