Ten found guilty of cyber-bullying targeting Brigitte Macron
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A court in Paris has found guilty ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the spouse of French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The defendants faced accusations of circulating false claims regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to making malicious remarks about the pair's 24-year age gap.
The court handed down conditional custodial sentences of up to eight months to the perpetrators. The full ruling has yet to be released.
A longstanding conspiracy theory alleging that Brigitte Macron is a person assigned male at birth has spread widely since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France is concurrent with the Macrons pursuing a legal action for defamation in the United States against right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly shared similar conspiracy theories about the first lady's gender.
Their legal filing alleges that Owens ignored substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.
Owens has frequently reiterated these assertions on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 stated that she would stake her entire professional reputation on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron initially encountered her future husband when she was a teacher at his high school.
The two entered into matrimony in 2007, when the man who would become president was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.
