Elon Musk’s X is claiming it owns all its users’ accounts — including those belonging to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars, which is currently involved in a pending sale to satirical newspaper The Onion.
In a Monday filing to a federal judge in Texas, X argued that users do not own their accounts and cannot transfer them to third parties without the company’s explicit permission. While acknowledging that users retain ownership of their posted content, X emphasized that its terms of service grant users only a “non-exclusive license” to use their accounts.
The issue arose following The Onion’s successful bid to purchase Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, supported by Sandy Hook families. The sale was prompted by Jones’s $1.5 billion liability for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax.
The proposed acquisition includes Infowars’ website, product inventory, customer lists, social media accounts (including an X account with 638,000 followers), and intellectual property. However, a judge has temporarily halted the sale for review.
X noted in its filing that few bankruptcy courts have previously addressed social media account ownership. The company maintains that regardless of how accounts are used, X Corp. remains their rightful owner, and therefore the bankruptcy trustee cannot sell or transfer what it doesn’t possess.
This isn’t the first time that Musk has used the platform to further his interests. In October, the company took control of the @America handle for Musk’s Super PAC supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
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