Greek yogurt company Chobani is suing right-wing commentator Alex Jones for defamation after linking the company to child rape and an outbreak of tuberculosis in Idaho.
In a lawsuit Monday, Chobani says that Jones’s website, Infowars, blamed the company for bringing crime and disease to the town of Town Falls by hiring refugees. A tweet sent from Infowars on April 11 that reads “Idaho Yogurt Maker Caught Importing Migrant Rapists” included a video which Chobani says contains false statements. The company says Jones was asked to remove the content from the Infowars website, but ignored them. Chobani customers called for boycotts of the company’s products, according to the complaint.
Jones says he is not intimidated by the suit, saying in a statement on his YouTube channel: “I’m not backing down, I’m not giving up, I love this. They have jumped the trillion-pound great shark on this baby.”
Jones is infamous for spreading conspiracies, from claiming the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax to saying the government constructed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Twin Falls is home to the largest Chobani plant in the world. The owner of the plant is a refugee, and this plant, along with another facility in New York, employs more than 300 refugees.
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