Infowars Goes Offline Amid Onion Legal Battle to Take Over Alex Jones Site
Variety • • nation
Key Points:
- Infowars.com went offline early Friday, displaying a blank "Off Air" page, amid legal battles over its control as satire publisher The Onion seeks to take over and transform it into a parody site.
- A Texas appeals court temporarily halted The Onion’s access to Infowars.com after Alex Jones’ lawyers filed an emergency motion, with a new hearing scheduled for May 28 to review the matter further.
- The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, had agreed to pay $81,000 monthly to license the Infowars domain and intellectual property, with proceeds intended to compensate Sandy Hook families who won $1.4 billion in defamation judgments against Jones.
- The Onion’s CEO, Ben Collins, and Sandy Hook families support repurposing Infowars to counteract Jones’ harmful conspiracy theories, while Jones continues posting content on other platforms without the Infowars brand.
- The Onion plans to launch a new comedy and satire platform at Infowars.com, led by creative director Tim Heidecker, aiming to establish a home for comedic voices and expand The Onion’s role as a satire institution.
