Ten sentenced of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron
Image credit
A court in Paris has found guilty ten people for engaging in the online harassment of Brigitte Macron, the partner of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
The those on trial faced charges of circulating false claims regarding her gender identity and sexuality, in addition to posting hurtful comments about the husband and wife's 24-year age gap.
The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the perpetrators. The detailed judgment has still to be made public.
A longstanding false narrative suggesting that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's first electoral victory in 2017.
This Monday's court decision in France coincides with the Macrons initiating a legal action for defamation in the United States against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has likewise promoted analogous false narratives about the first lady's gender.
Their complaint contends that Owens brushed aside all credible evidence contradicting her allegations choosing instead to give a platform to established defamers.
Owens has frequently reiterated these allegations on her show and online platforms, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would bet her whole career on her conviction that Mrs. Macron is in fact a man.
Brigitte Macron originally became acquainted with her now-husband when she taught at his secondary school.
The two entered into matrimony in 2007, when the then-29-year-old Emmanuel Macron was 29 and she was in her mid-50s.