Alex Jones is facing a hefty price tag for his lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — $49.3 million in damages, and counting for claiming the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax.
But what does the verdict, the first of three Sandy Hook-related cases against Jones to be decided, mean for the larger misinformation ecosystem, a social media-fueled world of election denial, COVID-19 skepticism and other dubious claims that the“I think a lot of people are thinking of this as sort of a blow against fake news, and it’s important to realize that libel law deals with a very particular kind of fake news,” said Eugene Volokh, a 1st Amendment professor at UCLA Law.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, the parents of one of 20 first-graders killed at the Connecticut school in 2012, said they hoped a big-money verdict against Jones would serve as a deterrent to him and others who peddle misinformation for profit.“I am asking you to take the bullhorn away from Alex Jones and all of the others who believe they can profit off of fear and misinformation,” Wesley Ball said in his closing argument Friday.
Jones’ lawyer Andino Reynal told the jury during closing arguments that a large judgment would have a chilling effect on people seeking to hold governments accountable. “You have to look at this particular case and ask yourself: What exactly are you chilling?” Solomon said.
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