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Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction with support of Sandy Hook families
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Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction with support of Sandy Hook families

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bid to Alex Jones Infowars at Bankruptcy Auction Supported by Families of Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Victims Jones Owes over $1 billion in defamation judgments because he called the massacre a hoax.

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

The Onion has acquired the website of the conspiracy theory platform; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and the video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

The Infowars website appeared to have been taken down Thursday morning. Jones was angry and defiant as he went live with Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon, vowing to challenge the sale and the auction process in court. Jones said it will be moving to a new studio, websites and social media accounts have already been established.

The Onion, a satirical website that succeeds in convincing people to believe the absurd, bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, providing highly regarded and universally respected coverage of national, international and local news events” and says that it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. He confirmed the sale through a satirical column on his website.

“No price would be too high for such an abundance of goods and malleable minds,” the post said. “And yet, in a stroke of luck, a formidable group of special interests overtook the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a bargain: less than a trillion dollars.”

The Onion consulted on the auction with some of the Sandy Hook families who have sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, attorneys for the families said.

“Our clients knew that true accountability meant ending Infowars and ending Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the families.

Everytown for Gun Safety said it will use Infowars platforms to raise awareness about gun violence.

Sandy Hook The families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax staged by crisis actors for to encourage more gun control.

The parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and the threats of his followers.

During his live show Thursday morning, Jones repeatedly said the bankruptcy trustee and others were in the building and threatening to shut down the show at any moment. That didn’t happen right away.

“I’ll be here until they come in and turn the lights off,” Jones said.

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened on Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones have expressed interest in buying Infowars.

Jones said on his show that if his supporters win the bid, they could stay on the Infowars platforms. The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, a company affiliated with one of Jones’ product sales sites, as a “backup bidder” if the purchase of The Onion falls through.