Chobani Sues Alex Jones For Defamation After Infowars Blamed Owner For Twin Falls Child Rape Case
Alex Jones is no stranger to controversy, as he built his Infowars media platform on it. However, it turns out that Jones might end up paying for the controversy he stirred up with Chobani and the Greek yogurt company’s owner, Hamdi Ulukaya.
A lawsuit was filed against Alex Jones on Monday in Idaho, claiming that the Infowars host defamed the Chobani and Hamdi Ulukaya by printing fake news stories in Infowars that alleged Ulukaya’s involvement in a child rape case and a tuberculosis outbreak near the Greek yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Idaho. The Washington Post reported that Jones published criticisms about Chobani’s hiring practices, claiming that the practice of hiring refugees attracted crime and disease to the small Idaho town.
Chobani yogurt sues Alex Jones and InfoWars for falsely linking brand to sexual assault case https://t.co/1adXEXjYEv pic.twitter.com/K0XBKBJvao
— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 24, 2017
On April 11, Infowars sent out a tweet that read, “Idaho Yogurt Maker Caught Importing Migrant Rapists.” There was a video attached to the shocking tweet that allegedly contained false information about the Chobani company. The defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones also includes a complaint about an article written in August of 2016 where Jones claims that Chobani is to blame for a 500 percent increase in tuberculosis cases in Twin Falls, Idaho, where the plant is located.
The complaint against Alex Jones reads as follows.
“The Defendants’ defamatory statements have caused and continue to cause harm to Idaho residents, including Chobani employees, their families, and other members of the Twin Falls community associated with Chobani.”
Chobani representatives claim to have requested that Alex Jones remove defamatory claims about the company repeatedly. As of the time of their filing, claims about Chobani and their owner, Hamdi Ulukaya, were still accessible on the “Alex Jones Channel” on YouTube as well as the main Infowars website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meFTH_W0ffo
Chobani also complained in their lawsuit that Alex Jones’ claims about the company and their owner caused for their followers to boycott the Greek yogurt company, leading to a loss in revenue due to the alleged misinformation that was being spread by Alex Jones and Infowars.
On Monday night, Alex Jones left an audio statement on his YouTube channel about the Chobani lawsuit. He has vowed to fight the case, claiming that he believes he was right to post and spread the information that he did. Jones also claimed that billionaire George Soros is behind the lawsuit. While Soros is not named in any of the lawsuit paperwork, Alex claims that his sources in Washington, D.C., told him that Soros is involved. Despite his claims, there is no information to prove that George Soros is connected to Chobani’s lawsuit against him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNBnhpcwM5k&feature=youtu.be
After learning of the Chobani lawsuit against him, Alex Jones has vowed to fight the case and says that the defamation suit has no merit.
“I’m not backing down, I’m never giving up, I love this,” Jones said in the audio statement.
“They have jumped the trillion-pound great white shark on this baby.”
Alex Jones, same man that says no children were killed at Sandy Hook. Just actors hired by Obama to discredit NRA.
https://t.co/lhUopvEL1X— John Moffitt (@JohnRMoffitt) April 25, 2017
Alex Jones has been trashing Chobani via Infowars for nearly a year now because of the owner Hamdi Ulukaya’s policies. Ulukaya is a Turkish immigrant and has been instrumental in the hiring of refugees at his Twin Falls, Idaho, and upstate New York yogurt plants. There are roughly 300 refugees employed by Chobani between the two plants. Because of Ulukaya’s support and employment of the refugee population, Alex Jones has accused Ulukaya of attracting refugee criminals and rapists to Twin Falls as well as starting a tuberculosis epidemic by attracting more refugees to move to the area in search of employment.
Alex Jones’ campaign against Chobani and his claims about the owner aren’t the first time that the Infowars host has found himself at the center of a huge controversy. The Idaho Statesman reports that the far-right-wing personality also made waves by claiming that 9/11 was an inside job rather than a terrorist event. Jones also reportedly claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
[Featured Image by Mike Groll/AP Images]
