Infowars shuts down website ahead of pending hearing on Onion takeover
May 1-Infowars stopped broadcasting Friday, displaying an "Off Air" message as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said he was forced to shut down its Austin headquarters by order of a court-appointed receiver.
Jones said the receiver, a court-appointed manager for Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, and its intellectual property, told him and his staff to leave the studio by midnight Thursday. It was unclear Friday whether those claims were true.
Jones streamed Friday on AlexJonesLive.com, alleging during the broadcast that the receiver, Gregory Milligan, said he would not renew the studio's lease, pay the phone bills or renew Infowars' domain before a May 1 deadline.
"There's plenty of money to pay the bills," Jones said on his show Friday. "But so I said looks like we got to shut down April 30."
Milligan has not returned requests for comment and attorneys representing Jones could not be reached Friday.
Jones' attorneys had paused a deal in the 3rd Court of Appeals that would have licensed the show's trademarks and website to the satirical news outlet The Onion. The agreement would give the Onion exlusive license to Free Speech Systems' trademarks, including Infowars, for $81,000 per month for six months with an option to extend. It would include "domain names, and associated intellectual property rights, including copyrights in website content, for media, entertainment, news, and related businesses."
The Onion previously won a bankruptcy auction for Infowars in 2024, but a judge later blocked the sale.
Ben Collins, CEO of the Onion, posted a photo of Infowars' website Friday with the statement: "Goodbye, get lost, and we'll see you soon."
The move is only the latest in years of legal wrangling amid the wake of high-profile defamation cases against Jones, filed by the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The Connecticut families, who won $1.3 billion in damages from Jones, have asked the Supreme Court of Texas to end the stay and unfreeze the collections process. Attorneys for the families have called the appeals court's intervention "bewildering."
Attorney Mark Bankston, who represents the families that sued Jones in Texas, said he assumes Jones will be allowed to continue broadcasting and keep his studio until a Travis County judge rules on a proposed licensing agreement later this month.
"Nobody knows what's really about to happen, least of all Alex Jones," Bankston told reporters Thursday. "But what we do know is we're on a path, and it's heading that direction. I don't know whether Infowars shuts down today. I don't know whether he keeps going on. I don't know what he's doing."
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 6:57 PM.