The sale of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media empire is a major blow to one of the defining independent media brands that ushered in a new era of fringe thinking, mainstreaming conspiracy theories once banished to the edges of the internet.

The satirical publication acquired the extreme-right, Sandy Hook-denying InfoWars during an auction of Jones’s assets, and will use it to parody its sanity-challenged conspiracy claims.

Ben Collins to made a successful bid for Inforwars' assests with the consent of the Sandy Hook families. The site will re-launch in January, to target "weird internet personalities" and mock the conspiracy theory subculture.