World Courant
Two French girls who falsely claimed that the nation’s first woman, Brigitte Macron, was transgender have been discovered responsible of defamation.
In December 2021, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy unfold unsubstantiated rumors on-line that Brigitte had by no means existed and that her brother Jean-Michel Trogneux had modified gender and began utilizing that identify.
The defendants had been ordered to pay €8,000 (£6,750; $8,859) in damages to Ms Macron and €5,000 to her brother.
Ms Macron had filed a grievance in opposition to the ladies after their claims went viral and sparked conspiracy theories among the many far-right.
The duo – Roy, an web fortune teller, Rey, a self-proclaimed unbiased journalist – mentioned at size in a YouTube video the unfounded rumor that Brigitte Macron had sooner or later undergone a intercourse change.
They spoke for 4 hours on Roy’s YouTube channel, the place Rey defined what she known as the “state lie” she stated she had found.
The declare went viral within the run-up to the 2022 French presidential election.
It was unfold via messages concentrating on Ms Macron’s husband, President Emmanuel Macron, together with these from far-right events, anti-vaccination teams and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy motion.
Ms Macron’s legal professionals rapidly took motion and a month after the video was posted on-line, the ladies had been sued for defamation.
“The bias is big, it has erupted in all places,” Macron’s lawyer Jean Ennochi stated on the time.
“It’s not a victory, it’s a regular utility of the regulation,” he instructed AFP information company on Thursday.
It was not the primary time that Mrs Macron had been focused since her husband took workplace in 2017. However on-line trolling had beforehand centered on the couple’s almost 25-year age hole.
Two girls responsible of defamation over gender claims
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