US conspiracy website Infowars declares bankruptcy

According to documents released on Monday, Alex Jones, the US conspiracy theorist who is facing multiple defamation lawsuits from parents of victims of a massacre he dubbed a fabrication, has filed bankruptcy for his far-right website Infowars.

The application for bankruptcy protection, often known as “Chapter 11,” is designed to halt civil court proceedings while the company’s recovery plans are developed so that it may continue to operate.

The well-known but deeply controversial figure on America’s rightwing fringe and promoter of multiple debunked conspiracy theories has been sued for years by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.

Jones claimed the massacre, which left 26 people dead including 20 children, was a fake event staged by anti-gun activists.

The parents had demanded Jones produce accounting documents which they say would show that he made millions of dollars by spreading such disinformation.

Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook murders were real.

The 48-year-old, accused by many as a provocative disinformation agent and huckster, is being sued in courts in Texas and Connecticut, where he has suffered legal setbacks.

In November a judge in Connecticut ruled he was civilly liable and could be subject to damages.

Jones’s firms IWHealth and Prison Planet TV are also involved in the bankruptcy, which was filed in a Texas bankruptcy court.