Satirical news outlet The Onion is in its last leg to take over Infowars, Alex Jones’ American far-right, conspiracy theorist and fake news website founded in 1999. Operated under Free Speech Systems LLC, Jones’ fake news website has regularly churned out fake stories that have led to harassment of many victims, especially the Sandy Hook shooting victims of 2012.
Alex Jones’ Infowars claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which killed 20 children and 6 adults, was a hoax and a ‘false flag’ attack orchestrated by the government with ‘crisis actors’ and child actors to increase gun control. After families of the victims and an FBI Agent working on the case sued Alex Jones’ company for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, his fake news website was named in a $150 million lawsuit. While Jones announced bankruptcy in 2022, a federal judge later ruled that Infowars’ parent company is no longer in bankruptcy.
In August 2025, after the families of the victims took the case to a judge, Infowars was ordered to be liquidated, with more than $1.4 billion to be paid to the families and the FBI Agent in damages.
More on this in our story.
What is The Onion’s plan to takeover Infowars?
According to Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, the satirical news outlet has submitted a proposal to a state judge in Texas to obtain a temporary yet exclusive license to Infowars’ intellectual property, which would grant them access to put up their content on the website and its social media, allowing the company to pay the victims’ families in the Sandy Hook shooting.
It looks like Collins’ company is determined to take over Alex Jones’ popular media outlet, with the blessing of the Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families, as he wrote on Bluesky:
“With the help of the Sandy Hook families, The Onion has reached a long-awaited deal to take over InfoWars.”
Speaking on The Athletic’s podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out”, Collins added:
“I decided — with the help of everybody in my life and family — that I just wasn’t going to drop this. And I just didn’t want to make it so our most grievous sin as a country, which is mass shootings of kids in school, where financializing that and getting away with it is fine. If we can’t draw a line there, then there is no line anymore.”
Ben Collins plans to make Infowars a big comedy network and has already started hiring people to run the new parody site, including Tim Heidecker, the ‘Tim and Eric’ duo fame, who has created many memorable shows for Adult Swim.
The new digital platform will put up parody and comedy shows under its creative director, Tim Heidecker. Collins revealed that much of the initial content will parody social media influencers like Alex Jones himself. The six-month deal with The Onion can also be renewed for another period. The end goal is to eventually sell the assets of Jones’ parent company and pay the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, gave their blessing to the new takeover in a statement to a media outlet:
“When InfoWars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families’ courage and The Onion’s vision, persistence and stewardship.”
While Alex Jones has not commented on the matter, he has vowed to fight the legal ‘corruption’ against him by continuing his ‘same show’ on a different medium.
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Edited by Aashna