Ten sentenced of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has found guilty ten people for engaging in the digital intimidation of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of circulating false claims regarding her sex and sexual orientation, in addition to publishing malicious remarks about the husband and wife's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down suspended jail terms of as much as eight months to the convicted individuals. The full ruling has not yet been published.
A persistent false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This latest legal outcome in France coincides with the Macrons engaging in a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's biological sex.
Their legal filing contends that Owens brushed aside any factual proof that refuted her assertions opting to platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has regularly repeated these assertions on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 declared that she would risk all her credibility on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her future husband when she was a teacher at his secondary school.
The couple married in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was approximately 54 years old.
