Satirical information publication The Onion has bought Infowars, the media organisation headed by correct-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed worth at a court-ordered auction.

The Onion said that the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who won a $1.5bn (£1.18bn) defamation lawsuit against Jones for spreading untrue rumours about the massacre.

A judge in Texas ordered the auction in September, and various groups – both Jones’s allies and detractors – had suggested they would bid for the business.

Jones founded Infowars in 1999. He has vowed to continue broadcasting using a different platform.

In a rambling video communication posted on Thursday morning, Jones called the takeover a “total attack on free talk”.

“I don’t recognize what’s going to happen but I’m going to be here until they arrive in and turn the lights off,” he said. “This is the tyranny of the recent globe Order, desperate to silence the American people, the mandate of Trump against all the lawfare – they don’t worry.”

The Onion plans to rebuild the website and characteristic well-known internet humour writers and content creators.

“We are planning on making it a very amusing, very stupid website,” said Ben Collins, a former NBC information journalist who is chief executive of The Onion’s parent business, in a statement.

The website also posted a jokey piece, saying that Infowars “has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing rage and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of population”.

The piece went on to declare that the satirical publication “has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars” and “forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars”.

A lawyer for families of eight of the Sandy Hook victims said the bid had their back.

“By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the throng at The Onion have done a community service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more damage,” lawyer Chris Mattei said in a statement.

Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died in the Sandy Hook attack, said: “The globe needs to view that having a platform does not cruel you are above accountability – the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the fairness we have long awaited and fought for.”

Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control not-for-gain organisation, said it had reached an agreement to advertise on the recent site.

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Jones was a fringe figure broadcasting in Austin, Texas in the 1990s and later built an spectators of millions with a mix of view, uncertainty-taking and outright fabrication. The business makes most of its money through an online shop selling vitamins and other products.

Over period Infowars was increasingly embraced by Donald Trump’s allies and his supporters. During his first run for president, Trump appeared on Infowars and told Jones: “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

The business’s – and Jones’s – monetary difficulties stem from broadcasts made after the December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Twenty youthful children and six school staff were killed in the attack.

After the killings, Jones and guests on his broadcasts repeatedly called into question whether the massacre actually occurred, floating conspiracy theories about whether the murders were faked or carried out by government agents.

At one point Jones called the attack “a giant hoax” and in 2015 he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured… I knew they had actors there clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids, and it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.”

Believers in the web of conspiracy theories that Jones spun harassed the families of the Sandy Hook victims, in some cases sending them pictures of their dead children or of gravestones and posting their personal information online.

Some travelled to Newtown to “investigate”, and several people have been arrested in connection with harassment of the victims.

Jones later acknowledged that the killings were real and insisted his statements were covered by US free talk protections.

But relatives of the victims won defamation judgements against Jones and his business over his untrue statements.

He declared financial setback in 2022 as the Sandy Hook case made its way to court, and in June 2024, a judge ordered the divestment of Jones’s personal assets. This included a multimillion-dollar ranch, other properties, cars, boats and guns, in all totalling around $8.6m according to a court filing.