Longstanding adversaries of one of the United States’ foremost fake news merchants, InfoWars, are apparently gearing up to take control of the very platform that brought him infamy.
Last Tuesday, a Texas judge ruled that trustees for Alex Jones can begin the process of putting the renowned conspiracy theorist’s assets up for auction, as part of the bankruptcy proceedings he initiated in a suspected bid to avoid paying $1.5 billion in damages to families of those who tragically lost their lives in the Sandy Hook school shooting.
In the latest, ironic twist to a long and winding legal saga, the purchase of those assets – including Jones’ flagship fake news website InfoWars – is now being “diligently considered” by a coalition of liberal groups and anti-disinformation watchdogs, Semafor reports.
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Over the years, Jones used InfoWars to spread a startling variety of toxic conspiracy theories, from exploiting the 2012 massacre as a “hoax” perpetrated by the US government to 9/11 truther narratives and warnings of a nefarious cabal supposedly hellbent on “turning the frogs gay.”
Jeff Rotkoff, publisher of Texas digital outlet The Barbed Wire and one of the interests behind the prospective bid, believes the acquisition would provide an invaluable opportunity to rehabilitate Jones’ websites for future audiences. “It would be a step toward justice to use the InfoWars brand to undo some of the damage they’ve caused,” he told Semafor.
Media Matters for America, another group in the coalition, added there’s also a widespread interest in dredging InfoWars’ archives for previously unpublished content. “As we saw with the Tucker tapes, the archives could contain unbroadcasted material that ends up having real news value – not schadenfreude – but actually useful information,” said Angelo Carusone, the organization’s president.
However, these organizations would in any case likely face an uphill struggle in actually securing the purchase, given a source familiar with the auction preparations told Semafor that Jones is apparently expected to expend some effort in finding an outside bidder to drive up the price.
There’s speculation that benefactor could quite possibly take the form of Elon Musk, a fellow fake news czar whom Jones has recently (and very publicly) begged to purchase InfoWars, and who was swift to revoke the Twitter ban on Jones’ accounts after taking over the social media platform in October 2022.
