US hoax trials spotlight misinformation profiteer on Internet
American radio host Alex Jones reaped millions spouting conspiracy-laden falsehoods that helped drive up sales of products like libido boosters, exploiting an internet ecosystem that experts say makes misinformation a lucrative business.
Jones, a serial provocateur who founded the far-right website InfoWars, has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting in an elementary school -- which left 20 first graders and six adults dead -- a "hoax."
Defamation cases in Texas and Connecticut against Jones have spotlighted the challenge of curbing misinformation on the internet, where false and inflammatory content often spreads faster, generates more engagement -- and more revenue -- than the truth.
"The modern internet business model consists of building an audience and then monetizing that audience, either through ads, merchandise sales, or direct donation," Danny Rogers, cofounder of the nonprofit Global Disinformation Index, told AFP.
"Alex Jones perfected that model by peddling the most adversarial narratives in the form of virulent conspiracy theories and unbridled anger, building a receptive audience, and then soaking that audience for profit."
Jones, who was back in the spotlight this week when rapper Kanye West declared his admiration for Adolf Hitler on his show, has amassed what experts call a fortune by successfully merging the conspiracy theories with merchandise and dietary supplements from his InfoWars store.
Jones has hawked male vitality supplements and testosterone boosters, while claiming the government was feminizing men or turning them gay by using chemical pollutants.
He accused the government of deliberately putting fluoride in drinking water, while his store peddled
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