The parent company of The Onion filed a request Monday in a Travis County District Court to license the Infowars website for $81,000 per month, according to reports. The move is the latest in the satirical outlet’s long-running effort to gain control of the platform founded by Alex Jones.
According to court filings first reported by the New York Times, the proposal was submitted to Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. Under the terms, Global Tetrahedron LLC, the parent company of The Onion, would operate Infowars.com and its associated intellectual property, including the Infowars name, for an initial six-month period, with an option to renew for another six months.
Judge Gamble must approve the arrangement before it can take effect, and Mr. Jones could appeal any ruling. The timeline for any judicial decision is currently unclear.
The licensing approach represents a new strategy after a federal bankruptcy judge blocked an earlier attempt by The Onion to purchase Infowars outright. In December 2024, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez rejected the auction sale, saying the outcome “left a lot of money on the table” for families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, according to court records reported at the time.
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Mr. Jones’ legal and financial troubles stem from defamation lawsuits filed in 2018 by relatives of the 26 victims, 20 children and six educators, killed in the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Mr. Jones repeatedly called the shooting a hoax staged by actors, which he claimed was aimed at increasing support for gun control. Courts in Connecticut and Texas found him liable, and juries awarded nearly $1.5 billion in damages. Mr. Jones has since acknowledged the shooting occurred but continues to appeal the judgments.
Mr. Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems LLC, both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. In June 2024, Judge Lopez converted Mr. Jones’ personal case to a Chapter 7 liquidation but dismissed Free Speech Systems’ separate Chapter 11 case, sending the fight over the company’s assets to state court. In August 2025, Judge Gamble appointed Mr. Gregory Milligan as receiver for Free Speech Systems’ assets in Travis County, giving him broad authority to liquidate Infowars’ property on behalf of the Sandy Hook families.
Several Sandy Hook families backed the original bid by The Onion and agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the bid’s value for other creditors. The families continue to support the involvement of the satirical outlet, according to The New York Times.
The CEO of The Onion, Mr. Ben Collins, said Monday on the social media platform Bluesky that Global Tetrahedron LLC had reached an agreement with the receiver, with backing from the Sandy Hook families, according to Newsweek. Mr. Collins, a former NBC News reporter who covered disinformation, also said that comedian and podcaster Mr. Tim Heidecker will serve as Infowars’ creative director.
Alongside the legal filing, The Onion published a satirical piece on its website titled “At Long Last, InfoWars Is Ours,” written in the voice of a fictional executive named Bryce P. Tetraeder. The piece imagines Infowars as a platform for corporate absurdity, with the fictional character declaring the site would become “a digital platform where, every day, visitors sacrifice themselves at altars of delusion and misery.”
Mr. Jones has said he plans to continue broadcasting regardless of the outcome, according to Newsweek. He has told viewers he has alternative platforms ready. Mr. Jones has framed the legal proceedings against him as political persecution and described the earlier auction process as fraudulent. His attorney, Mr. Ben Broocks, said earlier in the proceedings that he would appeal receivership rulings. Neither Mr. Jones nor Mr. Broocks could immediately be reached for comment on Monday’s filing.
Mr. Jones continues to operate Infowars.com and host “The Alex Jones Show” on weekdays. How much day-to-day control The Onion would exercise over Infowars, and how quickly any changes would take effect, depends on Judge Gamble’s ruling.
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