The parody media The Onion announced Thursday, November 14, the takeover of the conspiracy site Infowarsfounded by Alex Jones, emblematic figure of the American extreme right. This takeover marks a new stage in the fight against disinformation. “ No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds “, rejoiced Bryce Tetraeder, CEO of Global Tetrahedron, parent company of The Onion without revealing the amount of the operation.
This sale is above all revenge for the families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. In 2012, this attack in a primary school caused the death of 26 people, including 20 children. Alex Jones then claimed that the attack was a staged attempt to ban weapons. These accusations provoked an outpouring of hatred against the relatives of the victims. After several years of trial, American justice ordered him to pay nearly $1.5 billion in compensation to the families, forcing him to sell his site.
« Our customers knew that a real victory meant the end ofInfowars and the end of Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear on a massive scale “, declared Christopher Mattei, lawyer for the families, on X. The former conspiracy platform will now be reconverted into a site “ parody and will make fun of weird internet personalities, like Alex Jones », Specified the media.
Criticize traditional media
When it was created in 1988 by its founders Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson in a paper format, The Onion was particularly popular among universities. His satires on themes like the war in Iraq, gun laws and the American elections quickly resonated with young readers.
Quickly, its success influenced a generation of humorous and satirical media, such as The Daily Show or ClickHole. He even crossed the Atlantic to arrive in France, where he inspired the creation of other media: The Graph.
Since the launch of its site in 1996, satire has been used to sharpen the critical thinking of its readers and fight against conspiracy theories. Each month, the site attracts nearly 7.5 million visitors. The Onion covers real and fictional events, pastiching the tone and formats of traditional media. The goal: to criticize the news, biases and sensationalist tendencies of traditional media on the Internet.
Trapping a dictatorship
The headlines are provocative, the writing journalistic and the information completely false. Thus, according to the site, France won the last World Cup and the popularity of President Emmanuel Macron has never been as strong as it is now. However, on social networks, many Internet users fall into the trap.
In one of his Facebook posts titled “ Trump gets impatient as Elon Musk gives him his 10th video game recommendation », The Onion makes a mockery of the relationship between the two billionaires. In the comments, some are outraged: “Shouldn’t they focus on the future of the country? ”, before other users corrected: “ It’s a parody. » It is by gently deceiving its readers that the site invites them to question the information they consume.
They are not the only ones to have been trapped. Their most memorable deception took place in 2012. The parody media outlet elected North Korean President Kim Jong-un the “ sexiest man on the planet “. The joke had escaped the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, People’s Daily Onlinewho had taken up the article at face value. They even published a slideshow of around fifty photos of the dictator before removing their post.
