Elon Musk’s X is trying to block the transfer of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars accounts to the satirical newspaper, The Onion.
Musk claims that X owns Jones’ X accounts and filed a limited objection, saying that the platform's terms of survival prevent Jones’s X accounts from being sold off without approval.
In the filing, X lawyers claim that any accounts were the exclusive property of X and that the users only own the content “they submit, post or display”.
As the platform owner, the company “grants each user a ‘personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and nonexclusive license to use the software provided,” the lawsuit added.
According to X’s lawyers, the platform should retain Jones’ Infowars account, which has over 3.3 million followers, with a judge to decide later whether Jones’ personal account would be included in the selloff tied to his bankruptcy.
X claims that it doesn’t object to the sale as a general matter, but does object to the transfer of social accounts as part of any deal.
This comes after the Onion purchased Infowars earlier this month, but the purchase has been halted recently.
The purchase now hangs in the balance with US bankruptcy judge, Christopher Lopez, scheduling a hearing for December on whether the deal goes through.
Jones declared bankruptcy and liquidated his assets after being ordered to pay a 1.5 billion defamation settlement to pay out to the parents of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after comments he made on his show.