Alex Jones is fighting an attempt to sell his rights to social media accounts

(AP) – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is trying to prevent his personal social media accounts from being sold in the upcoming auction from his Infowars media platform to pay more than $1 billion he owes to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, claiming that selling those accounts would violate his privacy and deprive him of the opportunity to ​​make a new start after bankruptcy.

The trustee overseeing the liquidation and sale of the assets of Infowars and its parent company Free Speech Systems asked a federal judge on Friday to include the social media accounts as part of the auctions scheduled for November and December. The judge has postponed the ruling in this case for at least a week.

Jones’ lawyers argue that the personal media accounts using his real name are not owned by Infowars or FSS, but are controlled by him personally and should be considered part of his “persona,” which cannot be owned of someone other than himself.

They argue that trustee Christopher Murray has no right to the social media accounts as property that can be sold, and warned that a buyer could face lawsuits over whether they were lawfully acquired.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said a proposed order regarding the possible sale of the social media accounts that retained Jones’ right to later sue over ownership was unclear, and tentatively scheduled another hearing within a week.

“We need to have great clarity and everyone agrees that something can be sold before it can be sold,” Lopez said. “I want a buyer or bidder to know exactly what he thinks he can buy. I don’t want to create litigation risk for a potential buyer.”

The trustee also wants permission to sell the rights to royalties from Jones’ book “The Great Reset: And the War for the World,” published in August 2022, and his video game “Alex Jones NWO Wars,” released in 2023. in which Jones is the hero in a shooting game.

Despite the impending loss of his business, Jones has vowed to continue his talk shows in other ways, possibly including a new website and his personal social media accounts. He has also suggested that Infowars’ assets could be purchased by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in the company’s hometown of Austin, Texas.

In seeking rights to the social media accounts, the trustee’s legal team argued in court filings that Jones’ and post, and in some cases have a significant number of followers.” Jones’ X account has almost 3 million followers.

The trustee argued that social media accounts of influencers, celebrities and political personalities have become valuable assets, and that Jones’ accounts have attracted particular interest from multiple parties to purchase them.

If they are sold, Jones’ attorneys say the lawsuit will depend on who bought them.

“We felt comfortable with the trustee that if certain parties were the successful bidder, there would be a lawsuit later, but if certain parties were the successful bidder, there would be no lawsuit later,” said Vickie Driver, one of the Jones attorneys. the judge.

“For some people there is value in buying these assets and using them one way, and for other people there is value in using them in another way,” Driver said.

Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 — the same year the Sandy Hook families lived has won nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress against Jones for repeatedly calling the 2012 school shooting a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to push through more gun control legislation. Twenty first-graders and six teachers were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, in a shooting spree.

During two civil trials in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’s hoax conspiracies and the actions of his followers. They said they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families, saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones is appealing the civil jury verdicts, citing the right to free speech and questioning whether the families have proven any connection between his comments and the people who harassed and threatened the family members. He has since acknowledged that the shooting occurred.