The satirical news company The Onion has won the bankruptcy auction for control over conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media empire, including InfoWars, his far-right website known for spreading conspiracy theories. Jones announced the sale on Thursday, stating that The Onion had purchased his company. The Onion plans to close InfoWars and rebuild the website with well-known internet humor writers and content creators. Jones, who made false and outlandish claims about conspiracies and government wrongdoing, built a small empire off his show-turned-internet operation. The details of the auction, including the amount offered for Free Speech Systems, the parent company of InfoWars, are unknown. The funds from the sale are meant to pay off Jones’ creditors, mostly families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting who were awarded nearly $1.5 billion in defamation verdicts. Jones claimed he couldn’t afford to pay, leading to his bankruptcy filing. The ongoing legal battles and financial issues have led to Jones losing control of his media empire to The Onion. It is a developing story, and further updates are expected. Brandy Zadrozny and Erik Ortiz, senior reporters for NBC News, cover misinformation, extremism, racial injustice, and social inequality.
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