A Paris court has convicted 10 people of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron over a baseless social media conspiracy theory that falsely claimed she was born male and is transgender.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The ruling, which includes suspended prison sentences and mandatory cyberbullying awareness training, is being viewed in France as a significant test of how the justice system tackles online harassment, disinformation and hate speech targeting public figures.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, were found guilty of posting or amplifying a stream of false claims and malicious comments about Brigitte Macron’s gender identity and sexuality, as well as smearing the 24‑year age gap with President Emmanuel Macron with insinuations of pedophilia.
Judges said the repeated, widely shared posts, some viewed tens of thousands of times across platforms such as X and YouTube had a cumulative toxic impact that crossed the legal threshold into coordinated cyberbullying.
Sentences range from cyberbullying awareness courses to suspended prison terms of up to eight months, with at least one defendant receiving a custodial sentence that could be served under alternative arrangements such as home detention.
In several cases, the court also ordered temporary bans or restrictions on social media use, underlining how French authorities are increasingly treating online harassment, viral conspiracy theories and gender‑based abuse as real‑world offences with real‑world sanctions.
Among the defendants is Delphine Jegousse, who uses the name Amandine Roy online and describes herself as a medium and author, and who was identified as a key amplifier of the conspiracy after posting a four‑hour video on YouTube in 2021; she was sentenced to six months in prison. Another, Aurélien Poirson‑Atlan, known on social media as Zoé Sagan, received an eight‑month sentence and saw an X account suspended in 2024 after appearing in several judicial investigations linked to online disinformation and harassment.
The first lady, who did not attend the October hearings, has said the transgender conspiracy theory and years of online abuse have “strongly affected” her and her family, with her daughter Tiphaine Auzière testifying that her mother’s physical and mental health had deteriorated under the pressure.
Speaking on French television, the first lady said she launched the legal action to “set an example” in the fight against online harassment, as the Macrons’ continue to pursue a parallel defamation case in the United States over similar false claims.
The court stressed that the case was not about silencing political criticism of President Macron, but about holding users accountable for targeted, degrading and malicious attacks based on fabricated claims about a woman’s gender identity.
Legal experts say the verdict will resonate far beyond the Élysée, sending a warning to conspiracy influencers and social media users in France who weaponise digital platforms to spread disinformation and to orchestrate gender‑based harassment campaigns.