The Scoop
Some of the subjects of Alex Jones’ darkest and wildest conspiracy theories could end up taking over his iconic, unhinged InfoWars brand in less than two months.
Over the past several years, courts in Connecticut and Texas have ruled that the face of the far-right network must pay the families of victims of the 2012 shooting in Sandy Hook nearly $1.5 billion in damages for repeatedly claiming falsely on his show that the shooting never happened. On Tuesday, a Houston judge ruled that a bankruptcy trustee could begin to liquidate and put up for auction Free Speech Systems, Jones’ media company and the parent of InfoWars.
The open auction has sparked some serious behind-the-scenes interest among liberal groups and some nonprofit organizations dedicated to fighting misinformation, who see it as an opportunity to transform an infamous source of online hatred, conspiracies, and oddities into something quite different.
Angelo Carusone, the president of the left-leaning conservative media watchdog group Media Matters for America, confirmed that the organization would explore bidding on InfoWars.
“We are diligently considering this acquisition,” he said in an email.
Carusone said that in addition to taking control of the brand’s eponymous digital channels, he was equally interested in what InfoWars hasn’t published, and wondered if the archives could contain some interesting revelations.
“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,” he said.
Other left-leaning media players closer to home also see an opportunity.
Jeff Rotkoff, the publisher of the new Texas-focused digital publication The Barbed Wire, told Semafor that although he isn’t currently in a position to buy the Austin-based company outright, he was having conversations with people in his network and was seriously considering how the site could partner with other interests or publishers to get in on the bidding. In a brief telephone conversation this week, Rotkoff, who is also the Texas state director of Democratic-aligned super PAC Forward Majority, said that he remembers being baffled while watching Jones on local television decades ago when he was in college in Texas.
“We started The Barbed Wire in part to disrupt the constant stream of conspiracies and disinformation from people like Alex Jones and Joe Rogan, and it would be a step towards justice to use the InfoWars brand to undo some of the damage they’ve caused,” Rotkoff said.
A third current executive at a left-leaning media company said they’d looked into it this week, and an adviser to several progressive nonprofit news organizations said they are speaking with big donors about placing a bid or launching a crowdfunding campaign.
Several misinformation-focused news executives who were previously unaware of the InfoWars auction before Semafor reached out expressed interest in acquiring some of its assets or buying it outright.
The bidding process has also caught the attention of some less conventional figures on the left. In a post on X earlier this week, Brian Krassenstein, who along with his twin brother became famous for his viral anti-Trump tweets, said that he would “call it MissInfoWars and rehire Alex Jones, but make him dress up as ‘Alexa Jones’ and tell fairy tales.”
When Semafor asked him if he was serious about submitting a bid, he initially said his post was a joke. He later followed up with an amended response.
“We are actually considering bidding but I can’t imagine actually winning it as I’m sure it will surpass our budget,” he said. “Maybe we will get lucky.”
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Even if some on the left want to make a serious run at buying InfoWars, they’ll likely have to overcome efforts by Jones himself to maintain control of his site.
One person familiar with the bidding process said that they expect Jones to find an outside funder who will outbid the competition, take control of the site at auction, and install Jones as head of the property. This wouldn’t be surprising to some of the people involved in the Sandy Hook case: As one of the lawsuits against Jones moved forward, the families had considered negotiating to let Jones keep InfoWars as a way to generate money to pay off the massive damages he owes.
Jones is openly looking for a benefactor. In recent days, Jones publicly implored Elon Musk to buy InfoWars; one of the billionaire’s first acts as Twitter owner was to revoke the site’s ban on Jones’ account.
Some of the bidding is already happening under seal. On Thursday, the court-appointed trustee updated its bid submission portal, which requires potential bidders to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to see additional materials.
Currently, bidders can buy InfoWars as a package or for parts, including its social media handles, email lists, and equipment. The auctioneer said it will allow “any party to participate and purchase the assets regardless of intended asset usage, provided only that the parties comply with the terms of sale and meet the qualification requirements, including provision of proof of financial capacity to close.”
Jones’ intellectual property has reportedly already attracted several potential bidders, though it is not up for sale yet.
Chris Mattei, an attorney representing some of the victims’ families, declined to comment on who the potential bidders were, or if the families had specific qualifications they were hoping to see in a buyer.
InfoWars did not return a request for comment.
Max’s view
Ultimately, Jones probably wants the site he built and poured years of deranged effort into more than anyone willing to outbid whoever he convinces to help him. But the possibility that InfoWars could be turned over to an owner antithetical to his views is a fascinating hypothetical.
As I spoke with media executives and people in the nonprofit anti-disinformation space this week, it became clear that there are a lot of interesting ideas for what one could do with InfoWars, if one found the money to win the auction.
The new owner could sit on the URL and accounts with a tribute to the victims and warnings about conspiracies. It could become a fact-checking site; new staff could go through the archive and correct the misinformation that Jones spread, helping to halt the spread of false info when people chasing conspiracy theories land on InfoWars. A new owner could keep the site visually similar and subtly change the content, with the idea of potentially persuading anyone who may not have been paying attention to come back to reality. With thousands of hours of tape, someone could even use Jones’ videos to generate an AI clone of his likeness that offers rebuttals to his own conspiracy theories.
Plenty of questions remain. Would a new owner continue to host some of Jones’ embarrassing, insane oddities, like his claim that the government was “putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay.” Or would they consider that to be a part of the same toxic stew that pronounced Jones’ lies about Sandy Hook? How would a new owner navigate the seemingly conflicting interests of some of the victims’ families?
It’s unlikely that changing InfoWars will significantly impact the spread of disinformation and politically motivated smears. The fragmentation of media and the public’s interest in outlandish conspiracy theories has allowed Jones to maintain a level of relevance despite significant legal blows and deplatforming by major technology companies.
“The bigger issue here is what this means for our media and information environment as selling InfoWars won’t end the misinformation that Jones has platformed,” Charles Salter, president and CEO of the nonprofit News Literacy Project, told Semafor. “But it is gratifying to see some accountability.”
Still, even if it ends up in the hands of liberal opponents, Jones can rest easy knowing that at least one of his arch nemeses won’t be bidding. Semafor reached out to billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which has recently invested in for- and nonprofit media, to see if it was interested or heard of anyone who might be.
“I haven’t,” a spokesperson replied.