The news that a jury had ordered notorious disinformation peddler Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to several family members of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting had a big effect on Twitter users.
On Wednesday, a Connecticut jury ruled that Jones must pay $965 million to families affected by his false claim that the massacre of 20 children and six adults never happened.
Although it could be a while before the plaintiffs see any of the money, many Twitter users decided to cash in on the one asset guaranteed by the verdict: “schadenfreude,” the delightfully descriptive German word that means finding joy in others’ misfortunes.
And Twitter users were happy to express joy at where Jones’ perfectly avoidable situation had taken him.