A judge has delayed satirical website The Onion‘s purchase of right-wing media site Infowars, operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Earlier this month The Onion purchased Infowars with the help of the families of Sandy Hook victims – and they are hoping to make it “very funny” and “very stupid”.
Jones and Infowars gained notoriety for falsely claiming for years that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School never happened and was recently ordered to pay nearly $1billion in damages.
Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, and Infowars went to a bankruptcy auction, where it was bought by The Onion. A report by The Guardian said the purchase includes the company’s intellectual property, including the website, customer lists, inventory and certain social media accounts, and the production equipment. The amount that The Onion paid in its winning bid has not been publicly disclosed.
However, the Associated Press reports the sale has now been temporarily halted. This is until a federal judge can hold an evidentiary hearing to review appeals from Jones and another bidder who is reportedly linked to him.
Jones alleges fraud and collusion influenced the bankruptcy auction. However, a trustee overseeing the auction disagrees with the allegations and accuses Jones of launching a smear campaign because he didn’t like the outcome.
AP also notes that Elon Musk’s X Corp has notified the court that the social media site was reserving its rights to the sale of accounts associated with Jones.
On Monday (November 25) Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said the emergency motion to disqualify The Onion’s bid would be delayed until either December 9 or 17. This is when the judge will also listen to the trustee’s request to approve the sale of Infowars to The Onion.
“I want a fair and transparent process and let’s just see where the process goes,” Lopez said.
Last week (November 21) Musk ruled out any chance of alt-right figure and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones returning to Twitter. The social media platform permanently suspended the accounts of Jones and his Infowars website in September 2018 for violating the platform’s abusive behaviour policy.
When asked whether Jones should be brought back, Musk initially said “no” before he elaborated and said he had lost a child – to sudden infant death syndrome in 2002 – and said Jones used the death of children to push his own agenda. He added: “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”