In the United States, the satirical media The Onion buys the far-right site Infowars to prevent it from causing harm – Libération

A radical change in editorial line is to be expected. Alex Jones, the famous American far-right radio host and fan of the most mind-blowing conspiracy theories, was forced to cede his Infowars site to the satirical media The Onion, which communicated the news this Thursday, November 14. Consequence of an auction procedure triggered by the bankruptcy of the magnate fake newssentenced in 2022 to a gigantic fine – $1.5 billion – for defamation after the massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school (Connecticut).

Alex Jones hoped that “good guys” – understand: people who would share his ideas – would win the auction and take over Infowarsso that he can continue to practice there. Missed. To win the jackpot – the exact amount of which has not been disclosed, The Onion has partnered with the parents of several victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy, who have decided to forgo part of their compensation in order to increase the total offer. For the future site Infowarswhich could be back online from January, the company has also entered into an exclusive advertising contract with Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the United States. Articles on the subject should also be published there.

“A hilarious joke”

Those responsible for The Onion wish to transform Infowars into a parody site that would be ridiculed “the weird people of the Internet”, like Alex Jones himself. “We look forward to continuing its historic tradition of scaring people into shelling out their hard cash.”declared Ben Collins, the CEO of the company, in a press release, in an allusion to the lucrative food supplement business that the fifty-year-old Texan was thriving on his site.

“We thought it would be a hilarious joke. It will be our response to this world without safeguards where everything is becoming a bit nonsense.he added.

The sale ofInfowars must still be validated by a court. It concerns, in addition to the site itself, several accounts on social networks, customer lists and even Alex Jones' recording studio.

But the person concerned intends to resist. “I'm going to stay here until they come and turn out the lights.”he warned this Thursday morning. Before alerting, in another video: “They are closing us down”.

Messages published on the social network X, from which he had nevertheless been excluded for abusive attitude. But Donald Trump's new minister, Elon Musk, decided last year to reinstate him on the network of which he is now the boss. Alex Jones is still kept away from Facebook, for example, or the Apple application store.

A fierce defender of firearms, Alex Jones explained that the shooting, fatal to 26 people including 20 children, would have been “a hoax”that it had never happened, and that the parents of the murdered schoolchildren were “actors”. These lies had caused victims' families to receive online harassment and death threats.