The Onion Moves to Take Over Infowars in Deal Pending Texas Court Approval

The satirical website The Onion has reached a deal to take over Infowars, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's far-right media company. If approved by a Texas judge, the deal would remove Jones's microphone and allow The Onion to resume plans to transform the website into a parody of itself.

Families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who sued Jones for defamation, want the sale to happen. They're still waiting to collect on the nearly $1.3 billion judgment they won against Jones for spreading lies that they faked the deaths of their children to boost support for gun control. That prompted Jones's followers to harass and threaten the families for years.

The families are also eager to take away Jones's platform for spewing such conspiracy theories. The deal would not only divorce Jones from his Infowars brand but would turn the platform against him by allowing The Onion to mock his kind of conspiracy mongering and advocate for gun control.

The families "took on Alex Jones to stop him from inflicting the same harm on others" by using "his corrupt business platform to torment and harass them for profit," said Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys for the families. "When Infowars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families' courage and The Onion's vision, persistence and stewardship."

For its part, The Onion called it a "significant step in an effort to transform one of the internet's more notorious misinformation platforms into a new comedy network for satire." The company says it could announce its new rollout of Infowars in a matter of weeks if the judge approves the deal.

"Eight years, almost to the day, after the Sandy Hook parents first filed suit against Alex Jones, they'll finally get some justice, and even some money," said Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion. "This is a chance to make something genuinely new out of a very broken piece of media history."

On its website Monday, The Onion posted a satirical message from the fictional CEO of its parent company, Global Tetrahedron, "Bryce P. Tetraeder," stating a "dream is finally coming true."

Jones posted on X Monday that "The Onion Has Fraudulently Claimed AGAIN That It Owns Infowars!!!" adding that "The Democrat Party Disinformation Publication Is Publicly Bragging About Its Plan To Silence Alex Jones' Infowars And Then Steal & Misrepresent His Identity!"

On a podcast in March, Jones alluded to the impending demise of Infowars, saying, "We're getting shut down. We beat so many attacks. But finally, we're shutting down like the middle of next month," before insisting, "We're going to be fine."

Jones could appeal any court decision to approve the leasing deal. And even if he loses control of Infowars, Jones could continue to broadcast from another studio, under another name. Jones's attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

More than a year ago, a federal bankruptcy judge rejected The Onion's first attempt to buy Infowars through a bankruptcy auction, saying the process was flawed. Since then, the bankruptcy court clarified that because Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, is not itself in bankruptcy, its property should be handled instead by a Texas state receiver.

That cleared the way for the new pending deal to lease Infowars to The Onion, with the hope that a future sale could be approved. In papers filed in state court, the Texas receiver said he "determined that licensing the Intellectual Property is in the best interest of the receivership estate."

The deal calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to license the Infowars.com domain and brand name, which the receiver says will "cover carrying costs to preserve and protect the assets of the receivership estate" until an appeal filed by Jones is decided and the path is cleared for a sale.

Jones's personal bankruptcy case is proceeding in federal bankruptcy court, where a trustee continues to sell off Jones's personal property, including cars, homes, watches and guns, with proceeds intended for the families.