Ten individuals convicted of cyber-bullying targeting Brigitte Macron
Photo source
A Paris court has convicted ten people for carrying out the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The accused individuals faced allegations of disseminating untruths regarding her gender and sexuality, in addition to posting malicious remarks about the pair's significant age difference.
The court handed down suspended prison sentences of up to eight months to the defendants. The complete verdict has still to be made public.
A longstanding unfounded claim claiming that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman has existed since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This recent ruling in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a defamation lawsuit in the US against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's gender.
Their lawsuit contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has often echoed these assertions on her podcast and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron first met her future husband when she taught at his lycée.
The pair entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
