X claims ownership of all X accounts in battle for The Onion to acquire Alex Jones’ Infowars   – News

Who actually owns your social media account came into question on Monday after lawyers for Elon Musk’s X Corp. argued that the accounts belonging to Alex Jones’ bankrupt InfoWars site were its exclusive property.

The Onion’s bid to buy the website through auction was recently put on hold after Jones and one of the losing bidders said the process by which The Onion won was “rigged,” stating that the U.S. trustee overseeing the auction had colluded with The Onion. The other bidder, First United American Companies, a company affiliated with Jones’ dietary supplements business, claimed it had bid twice as much yet still lost the auction.

Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said the sale must be put on hold until an evidentiary hearing next month. “I want a fair and transparent process, and let’s see where that process goes,” Lopez said. “Everyone will have their day in court.”

The Infowars accounts had been given a lifetime ban on X in 2018 prior to Musk buying the company in 2022, only for X to reinstall a number of accounts under what he claims is his free speech absolutism. Musk said he disagreed with much of what Jones’ claimed over the years, but that wasn’t the issue.

Now X has thrown a second spanner in the works of a deal that has tickled much of the public – a satirical news website buying a website consistently accused of propagating conspiracy theories. X says all accounts belong to it as per the Terms of Service agreement, which states accounts are its “exclusive property.”

“Put simply, accounts are inherently part of X Corp.’s Services and their ‘use,’” X said in Monday’s court filing. “A user must use X Corp.’s Services to create an account in the first instance, and to continue using the account going forward.” The company added that as the owner it “grants each user a ‘personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and nonexclusive license to use the software provided.”

X’s lawyers clarified that X “does not object to the proposed sale as a general matter,” only the transfer of the accounts. The accounts are popular on X, with more than 3.3 million followers.

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