Ten people have been found guilty of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron, using social media to spread false rumors that she was transgender and equating the nature of her relationship with her husband, 24 years her junior, to pedophilia.
Eight men and two women, aged between 41 and 65, three of whom were tried in absentia, were found guilty of online harassment and sentenced to eight months in prison, with mandatory cyberbullying awareness training suspended.
The court also reportedly fined each defendant 600 euros and ordered them to pay a total of 10,000 euros (about $11,726) in compensation to 72-year-old Macron. new york times.
Five of the defendants were also banned from using social media platform X, which they used to spread false claims, for six months.
The charges against the defendants stem from Brigitte Macron posting messages and photos on social media suggesting she was born as a boy named Jean-Michel Trogneux, the name of Macron’s older brother.
Mr Macron, who did not attend the two-day trial in October, appeared on a French television network and said: TF1 On the eve of the verdict, she reported that she had begun legal proceedings against the group to “set an example” in the fight against online harassment and cyberbullying. guardian.
“People are toying with my family tree by claiming I’m male,” she said, noting that her defendants ignored evidence that she was born female.
“A birth certificate is not nothing,” she said, pointing to the important document that proves her identity. “It is the father or mother who goes to declare who their child is and who they are.”
She also said she wants to be a role model for others who face similar harassment and bullying. “I want to help teens fight bullying, but it’s going to be difficult if I don’t lead by example,” she said.
At the trial, Mr Macron’s daughter Tiphenu Ozier testified that her mother had been negatively affected by the spread of misinformation and the resulting damage to her reputation. Mr. Auzière said the damage had also been done to Mr. Macron’s relatives, including his grandchildren, who faced the charges.
Most of the defendants have denied wrongdoing, saying the posts were meant as jokes or were part of a legitimate discussion.
But the court found that claims suggesting Brigitte Macron was transgender or a pedophile were “degrading, insulting and malicious” and that the “repeated publication” of the conspiracy theory “had a cumulative harmful effect”.
Prosecutors identified three of the defendants as the main instigators because of their large followings on social media. Delphine Gegouse, 51, known as Amandine Roy and who claims to be a medium and author, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence.
Another defendant accused of being the chief instigator, Parisian art gallery owner Bertrand Choller, 56, was given a six-month suspended sentence.
The third defendant, Aurélien Poirson-Atran, 41, a former publicist turned novelist also known as Zoe Sagan on social media, was given an eight-month suspended sentence. Poirson-Atlan had tens of thousands of followers before her X account was disabled for allegedly violating the platform’s rules.
Another defendant, whose name was not released, was sentenced to six months in prison for failing to appear in court. According to Associated Presscould serve his sentence under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
A large amount of misinformation about the Macron family is circulating online, driven in part by broader global trends of hostility and distrust of mainstream political leaders. This is partly due to conservative opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s centre-left politics and more liberal stance on immigration. And, in part, this is due to skepticism about the couple’s May-December romance and their age difference.
The Macrons first met when he was 15 and she was a married 39-year-old middle school drama teacher. She later divorced her husband and married 29-year-old Macron in 2007.
Claims about Brigitte Macron’s gender identity and sexuality were popularized by American right-wing podcaster Candice Owens, who produced a video series titled “Becoming Brigitte” in which she promoted the theory that Macron was born Jean-Michel Trogneux and assumed his sister’s identity after her death in childhood. Some of Owens’ claims were included in posts that were reshared and retweeted by the defendant in the cyberbullying case.
The Macrons later sued Owens for defamation in a Delaware court, accusing him of making and disseminating “patently false” statements about them that they knew were false in a “seeking of fame”. Owens’ YouTube channel has over 4.5 million subscribers.
Owens continued to stand by his claims and called on the Macrons to provide evidence to “prove” that Macron was born female during the “discovery” stage of the case. She said such evidence would ultimately exonerate her of all charges.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
