DecryptionsFor several months, Brigitte Macron was the target of false information relayed tens of thousands of times on the Internet. A controversy, broadcast by part of the far right and anti-system Internet users, which sheds light on the political dynamics at work on social networks.
“You have been a victim of social networks: recently, it was said that you were a man! » Alba Ventura had probably not imagined that she would one day utter these words in front of the wife of a President of the Republic. It was January 14, on the air of RTL radio. Brigitte Macron is questioned by the journalist on school bullying, one of the priorities of her action at the Elysée, and comments for the first time on the false information that has been circulating about her for several weeks.
Indeed, “We said” that Brigitte Macron would in fact be her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux. A video viewed more than 400,000 times on YouTube proclaims it; in mid-December 2021, the topic appeared among the most discussed topics on Twitter for two days. “Who are these people? »asks Alba Ventura. “There are three levels, then distinguishes Brigitte Macron. The first level is transmitters. In this case, there are women. Transmitters who apparently have been chasing me for a long time – I don’t know, I’m not going [sur les réseaux sociaux]. Then there are those who relay and amplify, and there are, of course, the hosts »or the platforms themselves.
The “transmitters”whom the first lady accuses of having “changed [son] family tree “, initially boiled down to one person: Natacha Rey. On the Facebook page of this Internet user, the messages implying that Mme Macron would be a man date back to the beginning of March 2021. In September, she co-signed with the director of publication of the far-right journal Facts and documents, Xavier Poussard, an “investigation” relaying the same gossip. They rely, among other things, on the lack of media coverage of Mr. Trogneux to cast doubt on his very existence and suggest, in a typical mechanics of conspiracy, that Brigitte Macron’s refusal to communicate information about her private life is part of a strategy put in place to hide from the general public the truth that they claim to hold.
“Great unknown of the family”
During the following weeks, it is on the basis of this “investigation” that the false information will begin to spread. The Fdesouche site writes, on 1is November : “It seems possible that Brigitte Macron’s brother (a certain Jean-Michel Trogneux of whom we know almost nothing) is in fact Brigitte’s true identity, before her transition from man to woman. » A week later, the Journal de la Macronie Twitter account, which only posts messages hostile to Emmanuel Macron, writes that“there is a problem, indeed”on the identity of Jean-Michel Trogneux, “great stranger to the family” of the first lady.
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