[bots]

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $965m (£869m) in damages after falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

The families of eight victims, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, had sought at least $550m in the defamation trial in Connecticut.

They alleged the right-wing radio host's misinformation led to a decade of harassment and death threats.

Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the massacre was a "staged" government plot to take guns from Americans and that "no-one died".

He called the parents of victims "crisis actors" and argued that some of them never actually existed.

He now acknowledges the attack was "100% real", a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas.

As the verdict was read out on Wednesday in Waterbury, Connecticut - some 20 miles (32 km) from the site of the 2012 shooting - many of the families were visibly emotional with some in tears.

The three-week trial was marked by emotional testimony from a succession of parents.

Some described receiving a deluge of online hate and others said they had to move homes repeatedly for their own safety. A father, Mark Barden, recounted hearing that people were desecrating his son Daniel's grave by "urinating on it and threatening to dig it up".

Jurors also heard evidence that Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, made millions of dollars selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other products on the Infowars catalogue.

Jones broadcast himself watching Wednesday's verdict and scoffing at the court proceedings. He also appealed to his followers to make urgent donations, and pledged that the funds would not go towards his legal costs.

"The money does not go to these people," he said. "It goes to fight this fraud and it goes to stabilise the company."

His lawyer Norm Pattis told reporters that they will appeal the decision.

"Candidly, from start to finish, the fix was in in this case," he said outside the court.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63237092

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Alf will be having a meltdown

[arista]

"Alf will be having a meltdown"


How Nice

[Gusto Brunt]

He's a deluded, nasty man.

[Mystic Mock]

I never get these types of people.

I understand that people don't want to hear negative news, but pretending that it doesn't exist isn't going to help anyone.

[bots]

Originally Posted by Mystic Mock

I never get these types of people.

I understand that people don't want to hear negative news, but pretending that it doesn't exist isn't going to help anyone.

he said it was a fake organised by left wingers to bring in gun controls

[Oliver_W]

Sounds a bit punitive tbh, especially as no-one but his demented acolytes even listened to or believed him.

[bots]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Sounds a bit punitive tbh, especially as no-one but his demented acolytes even listened to or believed him.

relatives of those killed in the tragedy received death threats from his followers and several have had to move multiple times.

They urinated and defecated on one of the victims grave and threatened to dig him up. These are crazy ****ers enabled by him

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

he said it was a fake organised by left wingers to bring in gun controls

And it's just classic paranoia because he doesn't want to admit that the left might actually have a point on an issue.

Tbf though I have seen both sides of the Political spectrum do this before anyone thinks that I'm being biased against right wingers.

[The Slim Reaper]

The prosecution asked for $550m as a settlement amount, but the jury awarded them almost double

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Sounds a bit punitive tbh, especially as no-one but his demented acolytes even listened to or believed him.

you think? incorrect but even if no one believed him imagine being a parent of one of the murdered kids being told by some twat it didn't actually happen

[Liam-]

He owes over a billion including the first case he lost earlier this year and I think there might still be more to come

[Niamh.]

How do these damages get paid though? like unless this guy is a billionaire how would he ever be able to pay that? (Is he a billionaire?)

[Liam-]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

relatives of those killed in the tragedy received death threats from his followers and several have had to move multiple times.

They urinated and defecated on one of the victims grave and threatened to dig him up. These are crazy ****ers enabled by him

One of the mothers said that they had been sent actual pictures of dead children because they ‘didn’t know what dead children looked like’ because theirs ‘were never real’

This isn’t just some nut job shouting at the clouds no matter how much people want to paint it as that, this was a multi-year organised harassment campaign orchestrated by a sick, morally bankrupt cretin that knew full well what he was doing, he’s admitted that he doesn’t truly believe it was a hoax and that makes it so much worse that he continued to do this for so long, purely because he knows the quacks that listen to him will believe it full throttle and do whatever he told them to do

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Cherie

you think? incorrect but even if no one believed him imagine being a parent of one of the murdered kids being told by some twat it didn't actually happen

It's a lot easier to just ignore terminally online weirdos than it is to waste mental energy shytting yourself about it.

[bots]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

How do these damages get paid though? like unless this guy is a billionaire how would he ever be able to pay that? (Is he a billionaire?)

his companies are worth a lot of money, that he has desperately been trying to hide

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

his companies are worth a lot of money, that he has desperately been trying to hide

Oh good

[Liam-]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

How do these damages get paid though? like unless this guy is a billionaire how would he ever be able to pay that? (Is he a billionaire?)

He owns the company that he made the defamatory statements on and he’s made absolute bank from it for god knows how long, he’ll have a fair chunk of it, but if he can’t pay all of it outright or refuses, they can force him and the company into bankruptcy and sell off the company, but even if he tries to declare bankruptcy it won’t save him and these sorts of liabilities for ‘purposeful actions’ won’t be wiped away, they’ll stay with him until it’s paid off, they’ll most likely garnish any future wages as well,

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

How do these damages get paid though? like unless this guy is a billionaire how would he ever be able to pay that? (Is he a billionaire?)

He's either very close to being a billionaire or he is one. They will never see anywhere near that amount, and it will be a cat and mouse game of him trying to hide his money, which will then open him up to more crimes (fraudulently declaring bankruptcy)

I think discovery highlighted that his show made $330m last year (before expenses), so he has been raking in a lot of money for a long time.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

How do these damages get paid though? like unless this guy is a billionaire how would he ever be able to pay that? (Is he a billionaire?)

Being Angry on the Internet is crazily lucrative, I wouldn't be surprised if he could pay it off and only be mildly inconvenienced.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Liam-

He owns the company that he made the defamatory statements on and he’s absolute bank from it for god knows how long, he’ll have a fair chunk of it, but if he can’t pay all of it outright or refuses, they can force him and the company into bankruptcy and sell off the company, but even if he tries to declare bankruptcy it won’t save him and these sorts of liabilities for ‘purposeful actions’ won’t be wiped away, they’ll stay with him until it’s paid off, they’ll most likely garnish any future wages as well,

Thanks, that's good

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

He's either very close to being a billionaire or he is one. They will never see anywhere near that amount, and it will be a cat and mouse game of him trying to hide his money, which will then open him up to more crimes (fraudulently declaring bankruptcy)

I think discovery highlighted that his show made $330m last year (before expenses), so he has been raking in a lot of money for a long time.

I hadn't even heard of him

[Nicky91]

imagine being a disgusting lowlife saying school shootings are fake and the parents of the victims being insulted as ''actors''



oh wait, there is a Alex Jones type in my country as well


Willem Engel, the one who said the covid pandemic to be all scripted and made up, i bet he and Alex can probably be besties

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I hadn't even heard of him

Thankfully, to most people, Alex Jones is simply "the MILF off the One Show", though I f l bad for her Google results getting annihilated

[bots]

the important thing is that it sets a precedent. There are so many crazy conspiracists that have been getting away with it for years, this is a warning shot to them

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

imagine being a disgusting lowlife saying school shootings are fake and the parents of the victims being insulted as ''actors''



oh wait, there is a Alex Jones type in my country as well


Willem Engel, the one who said the covid pandemic to be all scripted and made up, i bet he and Alex can probably be besties

I give it ten seconds until you're worshipping him as much as Putin.