Satirical outlet The Onion has bought Alex Jones' Infowars at auction, say relatives of Sandy Hook shooting victims

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bid for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation for calling the massacre a hoax , the families announced on Thursday. .

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long waited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 Connecticut shooting, said in a statement. statement from his lawyers.

The sales price was not immediately disclosed.

Jones confirmed The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars in a video on social media on Thursday and said he planned to take legal action to stop the takeover. An email seeking comment was sent to Infowars.

It was not immediately clear what The Onion planned to do with the conspiracy theory platform, including its website, social media accounts, studio in Austin, Texas, trademarks and video archive. Chicago-based Onion did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday.

Sealed bids for the private auction opened on Wednesday. Both supporters and opponents of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars. The other bidders have not been announced.

The Onion, a satirical site that manages to convince people to believe the absurd, bills itself as “the world’s premier news publication, providing critically acclaimed, universally respected coverage of current national, international and local news events” and says it 4, 3 trillion daily readers.

Jones has said on his show that if his opponents bought Infowars, he would move his daily broadcasts and product sales to a new studio, websites and social media accounts he has already set up. He also said that if his supporters won the bid, he could remain on the Infowars platforms.

Relatives of many of the 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting. Jones and company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting was a hoax staged by crisis actors to encourage more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and the threats of his followers.

The lawsuits were filed in Connecticut and Texas. Attorneys for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit said they worked with The Onion to acquire Infowars.