--- title: "Elon Musk Demands Ownership of InfoWars Social Accounts" description: "Elon Musk's X is attempting to block the sale of Infowars social accounts to The Onion, arguing that it owns the accounts." date: "2024-11-27" modified: "2024-11-27" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-infowars-accounts" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "alex jones" - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Demands Ownership of InfoWars Social Accounts ![Elon Musk's X is attempting to block the sale of Infowars social accounts to The Onion, arguing that it owns the accounts.]() *\Image: Joe Buglewicz / Andrew Harnik via Getty / Futurism\* ## No Accountability Ever the center of attention, Elon Musk — through his social media site X, formerly Twitter — has managed to barge his way into the ongoing sale of Infowars to *The Onion*. In case you're not up to speed, the satirical publication recently [declared that it was buying Infowars](), the website founded by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction. But the sale has [hit a few snags](), and a big one has come from the Musk camp. On Monday, lawyers representing X submitted a [court filing]() arguing that *The Onion* couldn't buy Infowars' X accounts, because X — not Jones' media brand — owns them. In fact, the lawyers wish to emphasize, X owns *all* accounts on the platform. "X Corp.'s \[terms of service\] make clear that it owns the X Accounts, as the TOS is explicit that X Corp. merely grants its users a non-exclusive license to use their accounts," Musk's lawyers wrote in the filing submitted to a federal court in Texas, [as quoted by *Axios*](). ## This Means War Jones was ordered to pay over $1.5 billion in damages to the victims' families of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, after he claimed that the horrendous tragedy was a hoax. Both Jones and Infowars declared bankruptcy, with their assets being liquidated to go towards the families, who helped arrange the sale of Jones' website to *The Onion*. If Musk has it his way, however, its accounts on X may not be Jones', Infowars', or the families' to sell. Users are merely granted a "license" to accounts on the platform, X is asserting, but they do not own them. As someone who's adopted a conspiratorial, Infowars-esque worldview in recent years, Musk's intentions for interfering with the sale are suspect. He personally intervened to restore the X accounts of both Jones and Infowars, which were suspended under previous ownership, and even appeared [to promote their posts]() across the website. Musk has also [frequently]() [tweeted]() about how much he hates *The Onion*, [accusing]() it of being "woke." Instead, he has [championed]() *The Babylon Bee*, the Christian right's answer to the satirical publication. ## Social-fight X's legal filing disclaims that it solely opposes the sale of the X accounts, and not the sale overall. But with the primary Infowars account boasting over 600,000 followers, it's undeniably a major draw of the acquisition. Maybe Musk, a devout culture warrior, can't stand the idea of his "woke" enemies puppeting the corpse of what was once a major arm of far right media. Or it could be that this is just X's way of reminding us who's in charge of its territory. It's worth noting, though, that Musk has used this trick for political aims in the past, as *Axios* notes, when he seized the handle @America for his America Super PAC to back Donald Trump. **More on Musk's platform:** *[Checkmarked X Users Caught Promoting Sites That Sell Child Sex Abuse Videos]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()