In 2012, 20 children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, USA. According to Jones, the massacre was a “hoax” and even the grieving parents were completely made up, played by actors. The parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis sued Jones, the founder of popular platform Infowars, for defamation and emotional harm.
The case took a special turn on Wednesday, when text messages on Jones’ phone were accidentally sent by his lawyers to the lawyers of Lewis’ next of kin. There were several reports of the Sandy Hook shooting, with Jones constantly saying he didn’t have any texts on his phone about it.
‘Apologies not enough’
After years of claiming that the shooting did not take place, Jones admitted in court that it was “100 percent real” after all. However, the jury ruled that apologies were not enough for Lewis’s parents, who had been made impossible by Jones’ allegations to cope with the loss of their child.
The 48-year-old Jones spreads several conspiracy theories via Infowars and claims, among other things, that the government of then President George Bush is behind the attacks of September 11, 2001. He has been banned from Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, Apple, Pinterest and Vimeo, among others, but can count US President Donald Trump among his fans.