Jun 20, 2026
While Alex Jones is still fighting the takeover of Infowars by The Onion, the satirical publisher says it plans to launch its new version of the website on July 2.
This means the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 will finally begin to get some of the $1.4 billion owed to them from a 2022 defamation judgment against Jones, the right-wing media host and conspiracy theorist.
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Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, announced the launch date in a staff memo, saying it would feature new programming that parodies Jones’ old show. It will also give more than $100,000 to Sandy Hook families, which it has raised so far from the sale of rainbow-colored Infowars merchandise.
This decision could get the brand in trouble with the courts, as The Onion does not yet officially have permission to publish under the Infowars brand. Collins, though, doesn’t seem to mind.
“Alex is holding Infowars.com hostage,” Collins told MS Now. “He’s trying to intentionally degrade the assets so these families can never sell them, and the courts have largely obliged. We’re tired of waiting around.”
Jones vs. The Onion
Jones and The Onion have been fighting over control of the Infowars website for two years. In 2024, The Onion bought the website with the backing and assistance of the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
In a satirical post written by its fictional owner, The Onion wrote of the purchase at that time, saying “No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds. And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”
Jones was forced to sell his website after the families of the Sandy Hook victims sued him for spreading a false claim that the incident never happened. The families were awarded $1.4 billion in damages in 2022. A federal judge, however, vacated the sale to The Onion, citing transparency issues and a competing bid from a company that had ties to a supplement business owned by Jones.
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Earlier this year, The Onion found another way to take over the website. It licensed Infowars.com from the court-appointed manager for $81,000 per month. A state appeals court halted that turnover in April following objections from Jones. The Sandy Hook families have asked the Texas Supreme Court to overrule that hold.
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Jones’ finances
Jones has resisted paying the court-ordered damages, mocking them as they were read in court on his show, saying “Do these people actually believe they’re getting any money?”
In 2022, just two months after he was ordered to pay, Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing, made with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Houston, said Jones has between $1 million and $10 million in assets.
It also noted that the parent company of Infowars, Free Speech Systems (also owned by Jones) filed for bankruptcy in July 2022. (In a previous Sandy Hook defamation trial, a financial expert testified Jones’s net worth likely ranged between $135 million and $270 million.)
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
