French court convicts ten people over online harassment of first lady Brigitte Macron
TOI GLOBAL DESK | TOI GLOBAL | Jan 05, 2026, 22:20 IST
A Paris court convicted ten people for cyber harassment of France’s first lady Brigitte Macron, citing malicious false claims about her gender and identity spread online.
TL;DR
In a Paris court, ten people were convicted for online harassment against Brigitte Macron based on false assumptions about her sex. The decision confirms the fight against cyber abuse and misinformation via legal means in France.
Falling on a quiet Monday, a courtroom in Paris found ten individuals guilty of relentless digital attacks aimed at Brigitte Macron - the nation’s first lady - amid long-standing waves of misleading rumours questioning her identity and personal truth. Though unseen, the weight of those online actions finally met consequence through justice. The court turned down pleas that the accusations were nothing but jokes.
According to Reuters, the penalties meted out to the defendants varied significantly. One offender was sentenced to six months in prison without the possibility of parole, while the others received up to eight months of suspended incarceration. Besides this, the penalties also included fines, obligatory courses on cyber harassment awareness, and a prohibition against using social media where the abusive material was posted.
Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron have been victims of conspiracy theories and online misinformation for a long time, one of which was the claim that she was born as Jean Michel Trogneux and not as Brigitte Trogneux, the name of her older brother. The couple did not react to such claims for a long time but recently decided to take legal action against what they called 'an increasing harassment'.
Monday’s ruling is viewed as a legal victory for the Macrons, who are also involved in a separate defamation lawsuit in the United States against right wing influencer and podcaster, Candace Owens. Owens has publicly promoted similar false claims regarding Brigitte Macron’s gender. That case remains ongoing.
Right after the verdict, silence came from Brigitte Macron’s legal team along with the convicted parties - no word reached journalists. A man named Bertrand Scholler, fifty-five, who deals in art and writes books, plans to challenge his half-year suspended jail term. Once the judgement landed, Scholler, acting for one of the accused, called the outcome troubling, claiming speech freedoms in France are shrinking. The courtroom didn’t agree outright but hinted otherwise, stressing harm caused by coordinated online attacks. That detail, left hanging, seemed to answer without naming names.
This moment stretches beyond borders, reaching into global conversations about what people can say - while false information spreads fast. Who speaks, who listens, why it matters now. The European measures for regulating digital platforms have been criticised by the Trump administration as forms of censorship. Last week, five Europeans were reportedly banned from entering the U.S. for being involved in the fight against online hate and misinformation, which included the intervention of former European Union commissioner Thierry Breton, as per the information from the U.S. officials.
Brigitte Macron addressed the issue publicly in an interview with French broadcaster TF1 aired Sunday night. The victim of the harassment said that she had to endure constant attacks online and that in some occasions, they even tried to change her records eventually. The lass who took the case to court remarked that she wanted to be the one to lead that way, really, not the kids in prisons, not the victims but the ones who are going to be harassed. That was her motivation.
“I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment,” she said and added that after all, official documents only such as birth certificates tell the truth about someone's identity. She went on to say that there was no way silence could be an option when the harm caused by falsehoods is so continuous.
Legal professionals in France are indicating that this decision is a reinforcement of the existing laws against cyber-bullying and it acts as a signal that the courts will be ubiquitous in punishing the offenders involved in the digital form of harassment. As the discussions regarding free speech and the responsibility of Platforms continue to rage on both sides of the Atlantic, the case of Macron, among others, points out that the assaults on the character and image of public figures fuelled by false information are more and more often being dealt with through the courts.
In a Paris court, ten people were convicted for online harassment against Brigitte Macron based on false assumptions about her sex. The decision confirms the fight against cyber abuse and misinformation via legal means in France.
Falling on a quiet Monday, a courtroom in Paris found ten individuals guilty of relentless digital attacks aimed at Brigitte Macron - the nation’s first lady - amid long-standing waves of misleading rumours questioning her identity and personal truth. Though unseen, the weight of those online actions finally met consequence through justice. The court turned down pleas that the accusations were nothing but jokes.
According to Reuters, the penalties meted out to the defendants varied significantly. One offender was sentenced to six months in prison without the possibility of parole, while the others received up to eight months of suspended incarceration. Besides this, the penalties also included fines, obligatory courses on cyber harassment awareness, and a prohibition against using social media where the abusive material was posted.
Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron have been victims of conspiracy theories and online misinformation for a long time, one of which was the claim that she was born as Jean Michel Trogneux and not as Brigitte Trogneux, the name of her older brother. The couple did not react to such claims for a long time but recently decided to take legal action against what they called 'an increasing harassment'.
Monday’s ruling is viewed as a legal victory for the Macrons, who are also involved in a separate defamation lawsuit in the United States against right wing influencer and podcaster, Candace Owens. Owens has publicly promoted similar false claims regarding Brigitte Macron’s gender. That case remains ongoing.
Right after the verdict, silence came from Brigitte Macron’s legal team along with the convicted parties - no word reached journalists. A man named Bertrand Scholler, fifty-five, who deals in art and writes books, plans to challenge his half-year suspended jail term. Once the judgement landed, Scholler, acting for one of the accused, called the outcome troubling, claiming speech freedoms in France are shrinking. The courtroom didn’t agree outright but hinted otherwise, stressing harm caused by coordinated online attacks. That detail, left hanging, seemed to answer without naming names.
This moment stretches beyond borders, reaching into global conversations about what people can say - while false information spreads fast. Who speaks, who listens, why it matters now. The European measures for regulating digital platforms have been criticised by the Trump administration as forms of censorship. Last week, five Europeans were reportedly banned from entering the U.S. for being involved in the fight against online hate and misinformation, which included the intervention of former European Union commissioner Thierry Breton, as per the information from the U.S. officials.
Brigitte Macron addressed the issue publicly in an interview with French broadcaster TF1 aired Sunday night. The victim of the harassment said that she had to endure constant attacks online and that in some occasions, they even tried to change her records eventually. The lass who took the case to court remarked that she wanted to be the one to lead that way, really, not the kids in prisons, not the victims but the ones who are going to be harassed. That was her motivation.
“I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment,” she said and added that after all, official documents only such as birth certificates tell the truth about someone's identity. She went on to say that there was no way silence could be an option when the harm caused by falsehoods is so continuous.
Legal professionals in France are indicating that this decision is a reinforcement of the existing laws against cyber-bullying and it acts as a signal that the courts will be ubiquitous in punishing the offenders involved in the digital form of harassment. As the discussions regarding free speech and the responsibility of Platforms continue to rage on both sides of the Atlantic, the case of Macron, among others, points out that the assaults on the character and image of public figures fuelled by false information are more and more often being dealt with through the courts.