11mo ago

Alex Jones is profiting from his new game on Steam — while refusing to pay the Sandy Hook families he defamed

www.mediamatters.org Alex Jones is profiting from his new game on Steam — while refusing to pay the Sandy Hook families he defamed

Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.

268 comments

I mean, why aren't his assets seized and bank accounts frozen at this point?
Or is it only the poor that have to pay their fines?
- The court is trying. He’s just playing a lot of games. Lots of the money is held by his parents or hidden in different shell companies. The court established that he and InfoWars are basically the same thing as far as the money is concerned, so he’s been trying to start new shows and businesses to further complicate things.
  Court orders don’t automatically happen or always get enforced. Going through a divorce right now - lawyer told me that even if I do get an order that some of the shared debts are paid, he can just not. I’d have to go back to court and still get dinged on my credit.
  
  If you're poor though they just put you in jail while they figure that stuff out. If they figure it out.
- There are lots of ways to hide money and protect your assets, and many of them perfectly legal.
  Lot of it stems from laws made to protect regular people in debt (bankruptcy laws, getting rid of debtors prison, etc) but people with money use them too
  Imo it's a worthwhile price. Otherwise credit cards would just take money straight from your wages if they could.
  
  Not when one of his victims has terminal cancer and can't cash out because Jones is playing keep away through the courts.
- Because America is entirely broken.
  
  Completely empty comment just shitting on America, overwhelmingly upvoted. Lol what a fucking joke this place can be.
- He's jumping through all the hoops rich folks use to hide their money, which means the courts have to jump through the hoops to get at it, and the court system is slow by comparison.
- (in the UK) - Once, my parents employed a builder who screwed them over and so they took the builder to court. They won the court case and the builder said, "sure, I'll go to the car to get my cheque book". Then he was never seen again. So poor people can also get away with not paying fines too!
  (If they went through a bunch more hassle, they could have had him tracked down but by that point, with a young child and a messed-up house, it wasn't worth the effort, time and stress any more)
- Sad when you realized who wrote the rules. Fairness is a dream.
- Because in the US we have laws. Thankfully so or armchair lawyer loons like you would be running a muck. It doesn't really matter if he's a shitbag, but you can't just fuck with people because you don't like them.
  
  It doesn't matter if I like him or not.
  Court has ruled he needs to pay the fine, but instead of paying he is spending more money and doing ridiculous stuff like making this game. He is going against his court order. That shouldn't be allowed. Any less wealthy person would have had their assets seized at this point.
  Yes the US has laws, but he is breaking them.
  
  He makes his living by fucking with people he doesn't like and he certainly got off easy compared to the damage he's caused.
  
  k there captain butthurt
  
  Found AJs account
  
  Amok*

Valve allows this?
- Valve allows a lot of games I’d question like the Kyle riddenhouse game or whatever that loser is that went across state borders to shoot people.
- Not sure this is a valve problem. The courts are simply going to have to seize his assets.
  
  This is an absolutely a valve problem.
- I mean, it’s just a game. The shitty part isn’t on Steam’s side; It’s on Alex hiding funds and refusing to pay for the lawsuits he lost.
- Valve will allow anything if they can profit from it.
  
  War is profitable. So I hear.
- Valve is a soulless corporation that only cares about money. Why wouldn't they?
  
  Yeah true
- To the best of my knowledge Valve allows basically everything that's not outright illegal. They aren't nearly as much of a "good" corporation as they're often framed as. They'll happily provide a platform for and take their 30% from anyone, including racists, misogynists, homophobes, etc.
  
  Or maybe they don't see it's their place to gatekeep the store based on their own morals. If you start - where do you draw the line? Some examples like such games may be obvious, but there will be a lot more that are less so.
  If people disagree with the message - nobody forces them to buy it after all and you can block any game from even showing up for you in the store, in my opinion it's plenty enough from the valve's part. I'd rather be the judge myself as to what I want and what I don't want to see and play, rather than any corporation.
  
  Valve allows basically everything that's not outright illegal
  While true, and I agree it's the right thing to do, some things like this and the Rittenhouse game are in a weird murky gray area where one could argue that it's inciting violence etc. And if that someone is a lawyer, they could convince a judge/jury that it is illegal.
  I agree that they should allow anything that isn't illegal, but people say this like it's black and white, and legality very much is not black and white.
  
  This is too bad, but yes. They are like any other large corporation, I suppose -- motivated primarily by greed.
  
  Unless it pisses off the Chinese government, like the game Devotion that was released from a Taiwanese developer. But I don't think Steam has a high ground so much as it has good PR while not being extremely greedy. In contrast, GOG also removed it, which sort of discredited any high ground they had.
- Why not? It’s not like the kids are going to boycott them. Boycotts are only for easy to refuse things. Or things that sound good in a instagram post.
  Not for actual thinks they like and can’t live without.
  
  That's how boycotts have always worked. Boycotts have only been successful when people already didn't like the thing they were boycotting.
  
  Edit: Nvm I understand now!

I'll take this opportunity to plug a tiny podcast that I stumbled onto called "Some Dare Call it Conspiracy". It's hosted by two English guys that were hard-core conspiracy theorists for 15 years.
They now discuss, debunk and interview people around the conspiracy life. It's really fascinating to learn about Pizzagate, Chemtrails, Hunter Biden's Laptop and Jeffery Epstein from very knowledgeable people but in an environment of debunking.
Their latest episode is an interview with Rob Jacobson, a former staffer for Alex Jones that worked for him for 12 years. Jacobson ended up testifying against Jones in the Sandy Hook trial. The episode is on their Patreon at the moment but will roll out to the general public in a few days. Fascinating stuff and Jones is every bit as shady as one expects.
- I'm a huge Knowledge Fight fan. And your recommendation sounds right up my alley.
  KF is a podcast done "the dollop style" with the broadcasts of Alex Jones, both modern and years old episodes. Dan Freissen has listened to 1000s of hours infowars, has read None Dare Call It a Conspiracy (which is why the recommendation perked my ears), has read Protocols of the Elders of Zion, "you name it".
  He shows how AJ's Globalizist conspiracy is just a reskinning of old antisemitic writings.
  Dan was flown to Texas to help the lawyers of the Sandy Hook defamation trial. I can't say enough about how much I respect him.
  Btw, by "the dollop style", I mean comedian Dan Friessen tells his findings to comedian Jordan Holmes who is naïve on the topic.
  Edit: Knowledge Fight has zero ads. Never has. No paywalls. They have no interest in sensationalizing. It feels very honest.
  I'll link the episode most inline with this article. #602 with Sandy Hook lead counsel Mark Bankston.
  It seems like you folks like Behind the Bastards. They've been guests a few times. Here's one Part One: How The Rich Ate Christianity
  Edit: I wanted to clarify the relevance of #602. That came out in 2021, right after the default judgement was issued in Texas. I believe the lawyers never gave interviews until that ruling. I listened back. It's a neat little time capsule. Just skip ahead until you hear Mark Bankston speak if it's your first taste.
  
  I'm a policy wonk!
  This, Q Anon Anonymous and Behind the Bastards were my favorite podcasts for a while.
  
  Oh, haven't heard of it. I'll check it out. The Some Dare guys are pretty informal and raw, but they seem like guys you'd want to have a pint with if you met them in the UK. One if them is a rapper and the other is a death metal guy but they're both pretty smart.
  They talk about that actually. About how they think to get really deep into conspiracy theories it helps to be a creative type because you kind of have to be to get so far up everything's butt and see such tenuous connections everywhere.
  
  Can you link directly to the pizzagate one. I've never heard a good debunk beyond "there is no basement so nothing is true".
- Thanks for the recommendation! I'm a huge Behind the Bastards fan, anything in that vein is super fascinating to me.
  
  I love that podcast. I’ve been listening to one that a trucker recommended to me recently. It’s full of inside jokes so it takes a minute to be all in, but it’s really fun. It’s called Timesuck with Dan Cummins. Not every episode is perfect and it’s a bit long, but I love it.
- How do you debunk Epstein? He was convicted
  
  Did OP say anything about Epstein's crimes? No. He may be referring to the fact that people think that he didn't kill himself (I don't have a specific opinion on the matter.)
  Edit: I just looked up the episode's description: "Welcome to part one of episode 7!! The big question we're asking today.. Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself?? Everyone has an opinion on this, what's yours?"
  
  Probably meaning the "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself" theory.
  
  Yes, but did he kill himself? It's an interesting discussion, especially from the point of view of conspiracy theorists who literally think shape-shifting lizards are involved.
- Ugh, I was so excited for this ... And at about 20 minutes into the first chemtrail episode they say contrails are the exhaust fumes coming out of engines :facepalm:
  
  That doesnt square with the fact that these guys were hard-core conspiracy theorists? 😂😂

Look, people need something to play after they've finished Hogwarts Legacy.
- What's up with Hogwarts legacy? It's one of the most progressive minded games I've ever played, so much so that J.K.Rowling herself tried to taint it by saying money that went to that game supported her views instead of the views in the game. Even though she doesn't get any residuals from sales. She tried to tank sales to get back at them for making an open minded game instead of one that aligns with her views.
  
  Lots of TERFs and anti-LGBTQ+ knuckledraggers made it a point to “play wizard game to own the libs” after many people decided not to play it on grounds that, regardless of whether or not it directly supported JK Rowling, it certainly indirectly supports her by spotlighting Harry Potter.
  Also, as you said, JK Rowling tried to fuck with it because she’s a pissed off TERF, and some people just want to distance themselves from that whole mess.
  In other words, Hogwash Legacy became a virtue signal for the fragile snowflakes on the right to stand cucked in solidarity with their astroterf queen.
  
  It’s one of the most progressive minded games I’ve ever played
  That is such an incredibly low bar. What passes as progressive values in AAA games is just a shoehorned and saccharine checklist progressiveness. I can almost understand why the chuds get annoyed because playing some games can be like bad corporate DEI training.
  Right wing ideology meanwhile is baked into gameplay. It doesn't matter much if the themes are anti-racist so long as every problem can be solved with the right gun. It doesn't matter if you're a socialist state in a strategy game who's economy is straight out of the Chicago school.
  A couple games get it right. "This War of Mine" shows you what's happening in the out of bounds areas of Call of Duty. "Darkest Dungeon" is a microscope on the exploitation of capitalism. But good luck finding something like this in the AAA space.
- No matter what side you're on, this is a quality joke.
- And unfortunately, that Stormfront Doom mod isn't on Steam afaik.

Fun fact the game can be beaten in 45 minutes and steam refund policy allows returns on games played 2 hours or less
- That is a fun fact. Here's an ever funner fact: Don't give your money to assholes and then take it back. Just like, don't give it to them in the first place.
  
  True... But if you buy and return it you can give it a negative review?
  
  I live in the middle of nowhere and rely on amazon sadly just not possible for me
  
  I'm pretty sure steam has like a 3 month lag time to pay out anyway.
  
  Doesn't make sense. You give them money. Enjoy (only some do enjoy) the game. Get money back. Net sum is positive if the game was fun for you.

If you read the reviews for it, you can 100% beat the game in about 25-35 minutes and return it for a full refund. I was tempted to do that but I didn't want to enticed anyone else to buy it who may not play such a game on the devs.
- But then you could also review bomb it right?
  
  I think reviews from users who refunded aren't counted in the overall score.
  
  You can do anything if you believe in yourself.

This article invests a lot of effort trying to make it look like it's all Steam's responsibility.
- It IS their store.
  
  Which makes them responsible for enforcing that he pays to the families?

Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out), Access his bank accounts, pay out the damn families already, forget about him and let him rot in there.
- Lock him up (for life, 0 chance of getting out)
  Defamation is a civil matter, so there's no chance of this. There's really only one case in the US where someone can be locked up for failing to pay what they owe from a civil court decision, and that's child support.
  
  :(
- Ooooo TALKING = LIFE SENTENCE . Maybe you should talk a therapist and let the anger out peacefully. Don't involve your emotions. Surely a rational person cannot think that is a reasonable punishment.
  
  Depends on what they're talking about.
  e.g. "Let's plan a murder" vs. "Let's plan dinner"
  
  Do you like Alex Jones?
  
  (Most sane supporter of him)
- Do you think he did the shooting himself?
  
  He is one of the key figures leading a mob that has made the lives of parents a living hell.
  
  .

Anyone know if it would it be worth reporting this as Defamatory on Steam? There are options for Legal Violation, Harmful, Fraud, Defamatory...without having played it it's hard to throw it in any of those specific categories, because they mostly have to do with the software itself, though Defamation might work since I'd be surprised if the content doesn't contain defamatory statements (even if they're wrapped in attempted irony for legal wiggle room).
- I flagged it as harmful because it isn't directly related to the defamation case. But I'm sure either gets your point across, and if Valve gets enough complaints maybe they'll actually realize they don't need a man criminally liable for misusing media, to benefit spreading media on their platform.
  
  I flagged it as Child Exploitation for the simple fact one of the screenshots says Epstein Island...
- Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck I hate the dude too and he should pay his debts but my god dude how is it anymore harmful than like a million other games that exist? Pirate the shit. But reporting it for child exploitation like that one dude said because it showed Epstein Island is moronic as fuck its a game about conspiracy theories and it isnt any more harmful or defaming than a million other games that exist right now on steam. It doesnt show children being exploited. One thing I notice on Lemmy a lot is people who are like "well I dont like this so other people shouldnt get to like it either." Fucking christ just pirate the damn game so you dont give him money or dont play it if the courts dont get bought off then their should be no problem with them seizing the money he made off the game. But to report it for child exploitation and defamation is mega fucking stupid my god
  
  Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck
  You said, in your comment to my comment...
  Look: you're putting so many words in my mouth, it's probably not worth replying, so...

If they know where money is coming from, aren't there legal mechanisms to take it directly from Valve?

My concern here is that these are not real sales and steam is allowing Jones to use their service for a poor attempt at laundering, but I suspect as a non user steam is already using services to ensure that the sales are coming from legitimate computers and cards.

Can't they just garnish his shit and empty his bank accounts?
- They will, but he threw up roadblocks that the court has to move through. He moved his money behind dummy corporations that the court has to investigate first before they can “pierce the corporate veil,” for example.
  
  Surely that could be interpreted as being in contempt of court. Just lock his ass up and throw away the key.
  
  Yeah, that makes sense. Thx
- If this was a fair and just county, sure
  if
  
  They just hate our freedoms cause they anus

I do find it weird that Steam actually had this as a game pushed to me. Not sure if that was targeted due to other game choices I've made, but I saw the ad and laughed and shook my head.
- Alex Jones got to his position by gaming the advertisement system for self-promotion. I can't say I'm shocked to see his video game once again exploiting the Steam store's algorithm, just like he'd gamed the YouTube and Twitter algorithms before.
  You'll see Ann Coulter do the same thing with book sales. Have someone straw-purchase 10,000 copies of "Smelly: The Liberal Campaign To Fart A Lot And How It Is Destroying America", and rocket to the top of the Best Seller Lists.
  
  I think Regnery Press does that last bit all the time...I don't know if people that maintain such lists take that kind of thing into account or not. And yeah, I have no trouble believing that Lil Alex found some demon willing to help him game the Steam system.
  
  Don't under estimate how many conspiracy theorists and conservatives are on Steam. A good portion of my friends list is fractured after 2016 and 2020
- I get pushed conservative bullshit all the time in ads, but almost never on steam. Part of it is that I've intentionally limited the spread of my personal information and also given out more false information than real, so Google isn't sure if I'm an 84 year old woman in Montana or a 23 year old man using a VPN from Wales. They end up just pushing targeted ads for those vague locations.
  EDIT: Pro Tip, if a signup asks for an address for any reason other than shipping/billing then you can just enter a random church address and it usually works.
  
  I usually just put 123 Main Street, Schenectady, NY 12345. Most places don't even check to see if it's a real address.
  
  I think there are some plugins that will autofill things like that? Not sure what the current best one is.

Well I'm glad I didn't buy that, I didn't know he was actually associated with it financially. Figured it was the right kind of joke, not something tacky, tasteless, and stupid
- When I was looking through the discussion hub for it there are so many banned accounts lol. It's a 'joke' only as much as people say they were joking when they say 'jews control the media' or something, it's full of racist memes.

What a dirtbag. I just had to explain to someone younger what that "infowars" sticker on someone's car means.
The TL;DR version is: "avoid that person".
- Despite my usual attitude towards free speech, I will put in the effort to peel an "Infowars" sticker off of a pole if it looks like easy prey.
  Fuck Alex Jones and all the conspiracist bullshit he stands for
  
  This was on a car; I won't mess with someone's car. But in any case, I don't think free speech applies to whipping up a mob to harass grieving parents. Some of these people had to move multiple times and the stochastic terrorism still went on. For over a decade. He's screaming fire in a crowded theater, or worse. He can f right off with that kind of "free speech".
  Back in the 90s, I found Alex to be a rather humorous curiosity in the same realm as high weirdness in other areas like the Discordians or Church of the Subgenius only without the humor; these days I find him and his followers to be a threat to society. I think 9/11 and then, later, the likes of donnie really, really put him into a dark place. That, and the pursuit of filthy lucre.
  
  Fuck Alex Jones
  Agreed. After his Bohemian Grove success he was only in it for the money.
  and all the conspiracist bullshit he stands for
  Hang on. Are you saying the public should unquestionably believe everything the government and corporations tell us?

very cool America
- I'm curious. What would you like "America" to do in this situation?
  
  Have an actually functioning legal and economic system so people like this can't be created nor have this sort of power in the first place? When you have criminals running businesses making bank, multi-millionaires even, while not giving his victims the compensation that they're supposed to be getting, you've fucked up. Seize his assets and distribute them to the people who he defamed, take all of his earnings except for the bare minimum he needs to survive until this debt is paid off (which it won't be since it's far more than he could ever pay anyways). That's what he should expect if he disobeys legal orders and refuses to do the bare minimum in paying victims out.
  
  America removed the fairness doctrine under Reagan - that action is a direct line to allowing for an Alex Jones. "America" had somewhat functioning structures to prevent unchecked, rampant disinformation on the airwaves, Reagan removed it.
  On the brighter side, every time I mention the fairness doctrine I get a brief reminder that Reagan and rush Limbaugh are now both bloated, rotting corpses. The more time passes, history will only remember them as the monsters they were. Their propagandists die off more by the day and eventually only the facts of the damage they did to society will remain
  
  As in the US justice system? Actually follow his money trail and stop it where ever he hides it until he has payed back every cent of the bill he owns.

I'll stick to playing Broforce

He is a shameful human being. Nothing else to say here.
- I'd classify him as a big fleshbag of bacon grease moreso than a human.

Piracy and possible donating to the game studio is the morally correct choice.
- So here's the problem with piracy as a protest... It doesn't cost the publisher anything. Which has always been kind of the point of piracy.
  Unfortunately when you pirate this game you receive an item of negative value, so I would recommend just staying away from the whole thing.
- Why would you donate to the arse clowns who made this for him?
  
  That's why I said possibly. They could have just been contractors, but now it seems they are an inhouse production.
- The game studio only has one game...
  
  Let's hope it stays that way.

I guarantee the kids will not boycott Steam. That’s a line drawn too far.
- "The kids"?
  
  Millenials and younger are all kids.
  Nevermind that a not-insignificant portion are entering middle-age.
  
  Anybody younger than me is a kid. One of the few remaining things I have to look forward to in life is calling the new residents of the retirement home 'kiddos' and 'youngsters'.

George W. Bush still hasn't been charged for war crimes
- Great, so we can just let every other criminal off the hook until that happens? What a wonderful idea.
- Both deserve jail time for the rest of their lives. And even that's too good for them. What's your point?

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