Research/Study
Alex Jones uses lies about Dominion Voting Systems and the 2020 election to line his pockets
Published
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media operation Infowars continue to profit from the lie that voter fraud was used to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, specifically by repeatedly targeting voting machine and software company Dominion Voting Systems. Infowars’ online video and streaming platform Banned.video hosts numerous videos that promote conspiracy theories about Dominion and its employees while also prominently featuring ads for the Infowars Store, which sells nutritional supplements and other products.
Infowars has been smearing Dominion and its employees for more than six months with numerous conspiracy theories falsely connecting the company to election fraud, including through nonexistent links to foreign countries and with false claims of evidence purportedly showing illegal conduct by Dominion and its employees.
Given the potential negative impact on Dominion and its employees — who make voting equipment and software used by many states —this harassment is more than just an instance of charlatan Jones lining his pockets, as despicable as that may be. Various conspiracy theories progenerated by Jones and his outlet have previously spurred his fans to engage in harassment, make death threats, and in some cases, take violent action.
Following the 2020 election and the widespread lies about it pushed throughout right-wing media, Dominion filed lawsuits against Fox News, former Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and far-right attorney Sidney Powell, who had spearheaded a series of frivolous lawsuits that sought to undermine the election results. Dominion has also sent out letters demanding that individuals and right-wing media outlets stop spreading defamatory information about the voting machine company, including to a former temporary Dominion worker who has appeared on Infowars.
That former employee, Mellissa Carone, whose false claims about Dominion and voter fraud in Michigan brought her to national prominence and who has registered as a candidate for the Michigan state legislature, appeared on Infowars as recently as June to baselessly allege Dominion employees engaged in “fraud” during the election.
Infowars has also pushed some of the same false claims about a Dominion employee that were retracted by conservative outlet Newsmax, which was forced to apologize to the employee in response to a lawsuit. Newsmax retracted the claim that Dominion systems engineer Eric Coomer had participated on a call with members of “antifa” in which he supposedly said he would manipulate election results to Trump’s detriment. That claim also flourished at Infowars, and that attack and others on Coomer are still featured at the Infowars streaming platform Banned.video. In one such video, an Infowars host exhorted viewers to “remember that name Eric Coomer” while broadcasting those lies about him.
Coomer is also suing far-right figure Jim Hoft, who appeared on Infowars to spread his Dominion lies. Jim’s twin brother, Joe, appeared on Infowars as recently as May to argue voting officials should not use Dominion products.
These and other lies promoted by Infowars are likely to damage Dominion by undermining its credibility and deterring customers. Infowars is also putting Dominion employees in danger by unfairly casting them as participants in a nefarious and treasonous scheme to rig the 2020 election.
What’s more, Infowars’ profiteering off of these lies may have already helped fund deadly consequences. Jones, by his own admission, provided significant funding to the January 6, 2021, event in Washington, D.C., that culminated in a failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which left police officers and Trump supporters dead. Prior to the attack, Jones and his outlet had stoked outrage among his supporters with lies about the 2020 presidential election, often falsely casting Dominion as a key component of an insidious, though imaginary, plot that successfully stole the 2020 election from Trump.
Infowars uses Dominion lies to promote its store in two main ways: by placing links to the Infowars store promising discounts in Dominion-related video descriptions at Banned.video, and by including prerecorded advertisements featuring Jones and other Infowars personalities within the videos themselves.
Infowars often connects current events to its product pitches in order to make arguments for their purchase. For example, as the number of COVID-19 cases drastically rose in the United States in early 2020, Infowars raised the price of its bulk “survival” food products while hammering the prospect of food shortages in ads. Similarly, Infowars later falsely pitched some of the nutritional supplements it sells as COVID-19 preventatives. Additionally, some Infowars advertising included in videos about Dominion promoted a “stop the steal” special, urging supporters to buy Infowars Store products to fund Infowars’ support for overturning the 2020 election on the basis of false election theft claims.
Below is a sampling of Infowars videos that feature falsehoods about Dominion. All of the following segments are still available at Infowars’ Banned.video as of publication.