The Onion Moves to License Infowars Domain in Provisional Deal

A Texas court has provisionally approved a licensing agreement for the satirical news organization The Onion to operate the Infowars.com domain and brand. The deal, which requires final approval from a state judge, would see The Onion pay a monthly fee for the assets of the conspiracy theory outlet founded by Alex Jones.

The arrangement follows years of litigation and bankruptcy proceedings stemming from defamation judgments against Jones related to his coverage of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

Details of the Agreement

• The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, has agreed to license Infowars’ intellectual property for $81,000 per month for an initial six-month term, with an option to renew for another six months.
• The agreement was negotiated with a court-appointed receiver who is responsible for managing the assets of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems.
• A hearing on the licensing agreement is scheduled for April 30 in Travis County, Texas. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble is expected to issue a final ruling within two weeks of the hearing.
• Alex Jones has stated he will appeal any court decision to approve the deal. He continues to operate Infowars and host its weekday program during this process.

Background and Legal Context

The agreement is the latest development in a series of legal actions against Alex Jones:

• In 2022, Jones was found liable for defamation in multiple cases for repeatedly claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. He owes approximately $1.3 to $1.4 billion in damages to the families of the victims.
• Jones and Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy. A federal bankruptcy judge later halted an attempt by The Onion to purchase Infowars through a court-mandated auction, citing concerns about the auction process.
• In August 2025, a Texas state court placed Free Speech Systems into receivership. The receiver’s duty is to sell the company’s assets and use the proceeds to pay Jones’s debts.
• According to court filings, the receiver determined that licensing the intellectual property was in the best interest of the receivership estate. The monthly fee is intended to cover costs to preserve the assets while Jones’s appeals are resolved.
• Jones’s personal bankruptcy case is proceeding separately in federal court, where a trustee is selling his personal property, including cars and homes.

Stated Plans and Reactions

From The Onion and Its Representatives

• The Onion’s CEO, Ben Collins, stated the company has “wanted this the whole time” and sees it as “a chance to make something genuinely new out of a very broken piece of media history.” He said the new platform would operate as a digital comedy network.
• Comedian Tim Heidecker, who would become the creative director, said he plans to parody Alex Jones’s “whole modus operandi” and described the goal as transforming the platform.
• In a company statement, The Onion called the deal a step to transform a “misinformation platform into a new comedy network for satire.”

From Representatives of the Sandy Hook Families

• Attorney Chris Mattei, representing the families, stated their goal was to stop Jones from inflicting harm on others. He said the deal promises “to significantly degrade his power to do that” and would turn “the machinery of lies that Jones built” into “a force for social good.”

From Alex Jones

• Jones has publicly disputed the deal’s status. On his show, he stated he will keep “the exact same show” on a new site if necessary and will “continue to fight” the legal case against him. On social media, he accused The Onion of planning “To Silence Alex Jones' Infowars And Then Steal & Misrepresent His Identity!”

Financial Obligations and Next Steps

Alex Jones has not paid any of the court-ordered damages to the Sandy Hook families. The licensing agreement, if finally approved, would provide monthly revenue to the receivership estate.

The Onion has signed a deal to purchase the full assets of Infowars once the current judicial stay expires, contingent on court approval at that time.

Jones could continue broadcasting under a different name even if he loses control of the Infowars brand.