Interested in Buying Infowars? You'll Have Competition

Alex Jones owes more than $1 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims, the result of their defamation and emotional distress lawsuits against him for spreading conspiracy theories related to the 2012 massacre. Bidders are already champing at the bit to scoop up the assets he needs to sell to come up with some of the cash. In fact, NPR notes there's a "bidding war" that's likely to emerge for the right-wing conspiracy theorist's Infowars brand, including its website, with both "fans and foes" expressing interest in the intellectual property soon to head to the auction block. More:

• What's up for grabs: The "turnkey business opportunity" offered on the ThreeSixty Asset Advisors' auction page is part of the liquidation via a federal bankruptcy court of both Infowars and its parent company, Free Speech Systems. Up for grabs at auction, as a package or in parts, are the Infowars name, archive, social media accounts, e-commerce site, and gear like cameras and microphones, according to ThreeSixty and fellow auctioneer Tranzon Asset Advisors. "There are no restrictions on the use of any acquired property ... allowing the bidder to utilize the assets at their own discretion," the auction house says in a release.

• Attention from the right: Some right-wing allies have taken up the cause and expressed interest in buying the brand, including Trump ally Roger Stone. Elon Musk fans have also been urging him to look into adding Infowars to his portfolio, especially since Musk reinstated Jones' suspended X account after the former bought the site formerly known as Twitter.
• Attention from the left: Camps from the other side of the aisle are also vying to buy Infowars. Angelo Carusone, who heads up the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, tells Semafor that his organization is "diligently considering this acquisition." The Barbed Wire, a progressive Texas media group run by Jeff Rotkoff, and social media uber-poster Brian Krassenstein have also expressed interest, among others.
• Reasoning: More-liberal potential buyers say if they purchase the Infowars site, they can use it to try to help reverse some of the bad information that's been pumped into the minds of Infowars listeners. Others simply want to get their hands on any archived material that might show some off-air candid moments that reveal Jones doesn't really believe the conspiracy theories he disseminates. "It [would be] kind of like an emperor-has-no-clothes moment," Carusone tells Semafor.
• Further details: An initial bid deadline for this first round of auctions has been set for Nov. 8, by which point any interested parties must come up with a 10% deposit and sign off on an NDA. All bids "deemed competitive" will move on to a live bidding round on Nov. 13, which will take place behind closed doors.
• Aftermath: Even if a sale goes through, it's not looking good that Jones will raise close to the money he needs to pay the affected families. "At best, the families expect to collect just a small fraction of what they're owed," NPR notes. At one point, they'd even mulled letting Jones keep Infowars so he could keep raising money that he could then use to pay them.

(More Infowars stories.)