After satirical news outlet The Onion announced it has acquired Alex Jones’ Infowars, social media went into overdrive. Mr Jones, a conspiracy theorist who owned Infowars, made money by running stories that called one of America’s most notorious school shootings a hoax. The deal will lead to the sale of platform’s studio equipment, online dietary supplement store, a Terradyne armoured truck, and its social media accounts. The amount of the bid was not announced. The new Infowars, starting in January, will operate as a parody of its former self, said The Onion.
The bid was backed by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 2012 – that Mr Jones called a hoax – and one first responder, as per a CNN report.
As the news spread, reactions started pouring in on social media.
“The Onion just purchased Alex Jones’ Infowars site to make it a parody of itself and ridiculous conspiracy theories. This is the kind of good trouble we all need to do these next four years,” said one user on X. “Cheers to Karma displaying a wicked sense of humour with the Onion purchasing Infowars,” commented another.
“The Onion delivering one of the greatest hits of all time today,” said a third user.
“Yep. The Onion bought Infowars. This is gonna be so good! Maybe there is a god after all,” another comment read.
The Onion said in a tongue-in-cheek story that the site had cost “less than a trillion dollars”.
The Sandy Hook massacre took place in 2012 in which 26 people – 20 students and six teachers – were killed. Families sued Jones in 2018 after he spread the claim that the shooting rampage was staged with actors.
Four years later they won a $1.4 billion defamation settlement against Jones, who declared bankruptcy, and his company Free Speech Systems.
