The Onion CEO Ben Collins confirmed the company's acquisition of Alex Jones' Infowars outlet in a series of posts on social media platforms on Saturday. blue sky Amid allegations of fraud and misconduct by Mr. Jones.
“I just wanted to give a quick update on The Onion's acquisition of InfoWars. I can't wait to relaunch it as the dumbest website on the internet,” Collins wrote.
“Simply put, we won the auction, and believe it or not, the old InfoWars people didn't like it.”
He shared that the satirical news website The Onion, along with the Sandy Hook, Conn., victim's family, won the bid for Infowars in Jones' bankruptcy auction on Thursday. Jones previously said the massacre was a “hoax.”
Jones was liable for approximately $1.5 billion in damages for false claims related to the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Family members moved to liquidate his business and take over his social media accounts, which was granted by a judge in September.
Through his efforts to buy Jones' platform, he has spread conspiracies about legal mistakes in the process.
He recently announced that the auctions on the Infowars site have changed from “regular auctions” to “secret” took place two days before the auction was scheduled to take place. He also said higher bidders were prevented from submitting offers so that lower bids could be accepted.
Mr Jones also claimed that the presiding judge had acknowledged that the auction was “not genuine” and that a criminal investigation into bid rigging was ongoing.
Mr. Collins denies these claims, saying that Mr. Jones is allowed to continue operating Infowars until the sale is completed, and that Mr. Jones is using the platform as a fundraising opportunity and false information about auction winners. He shared that he had been disseminating information.
“Obviously, we expected all of this. Buying this site is always fun later on, but quickly becomes a pain. The fun part is yet to come.” Collins he wrote.
The Onion added that it looks forward to completing the sale at a court hearing in a week's time starting Monday.
