The satirical newspaper Onion successfully acquired The information war and the intellectual property associated with it, ultimately giving up on the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of the right-wing disinformation outfit.

According to Oliver Darcy Status newsletterthe agreement grants Onion ownership of Infowars’ “website, product inventory, customer lists, social media accounts and intellectual property.”

In a series of lawsuits tried in 2022, Jones was was ordered to pay $1.5 billion families of Sandy Hook victims over his repeated false claims that the 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was a hoax. In September, a Texas judge ruled that Jones’ assets — including the Infowars properties — could to be auctioned to pay the penalties owed by Jones.

It is not yet clear how much Onion paid to acquire one of the most toxic properties in American media, but the publication he stated on Thursday that “the goal of the acquisition is to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of misinformation for the sake of selling add-ons and replace it with Onionrelentless barrage of humor forever.”

Jones didn’t seem pleased with the news a video posted after the purchase was announced, referring to Onionwhich is based in Chicago, as “Connecticut Democrats” while complaining about the bidding process.

Onion It also announced that it has partnered with gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety to facilitate the acquisition, which will serve as the exclusive advertising partner for the relaunch of Infowars under its new parent company. “It’s fitting that a platform once used to profit from tragedy should be a tool for education, hence our multi-year advertising commitment to this new venture,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, added in the statement from Tuesday. “We’re proud to be a part of what’s next, not only in stemming the flow of harmful misinformation, but also for the potential this new venture has to help Everytown reach new audiences ready to hold the gun industry accountable for contribution. to our nation’s gun violence epidemic.”

Chris Mattei, an attorney representing several Sandy Hook families, added that “from day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring real accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. Our clients knew that real accountability meant ending Infowars and ending Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale. After surviving an unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ empty offers of supposedly more money if they would just let him stay on the show, because doing so would put other families at risk.

“They are heroes and it has been an honor and a privilege to be their advocate throughout this fight. By divesting Jones of the Infowars assets, the families and team at Onion they have done a public service and will significantly hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm,” Mattei said.

In a frantic emergency broadcast following the news, Jones ditched a tactic he’s been running for years — hysterically telling his viewers that his operation was about to be shut down.

“I’m in the control room,” Jones told viewers on his Banned Video streaming platform. “Imperial troops are through glass.” Longtime Trump adviser and right-wing operative Steve Bannon, who joined Jones on the emergency broadcast, repeatedly asked Jones to provide an update on what these “imperial troops” were doing and suggested filming them live.

“You guys in the control room, put a damn camera in their face and let’s get a name and a rank and a serial number,” Bannon suggested, claiming the “Gestapo” would come after Jones.

Jones diverted and continued the show without interruption. He later claimed that the “troops” simply gave up. “They heard what you just said and they left the building, Jones told Bannon.

During the broadcast, Infowars’ main website was shut down while Jones continued to connect his outlets and backup accounts for viewers.