DISINFO: Brigitte Macron has been transformed by surgery

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Brigitte Macron has been transformed by surgery

SUMMARY

François Favre, a surgeon linked to possible operations on France's First Lady Brigitte Macron has been found dead. Before his death, he was planning an interview with journalists of Closer magazine. His sister insisted that it was unlikely to be a suicide. Questions immediately arose about his death with the main one being was it an accident?

The investigation's results were even more disturbing: the surgeon François Favre never existed, nor did his sister or the newspaper that revealed the scandal and the journalist who signed the article never wrote it. The video accompanying the text was generated by Artificial Intelligence. Political scientist Sergei Markelov asserts that if the story about the surgeon were untrue, such widespread media attention would not exist without reason. He argues that it is obvious when looking at the French First Lady, the volume of articles published about her, and the reaction of the presidential couple, that she underwent surgery to alter her appearance.

RESPONSE

This is a recurring conspiracy theory narrative about Brigitte Macron, which openly admits that the campaign is not based on facts, yet still concludes that the theory is true. The real target of the campaign is the husband of Brigitte: French President Emmanuel Macron.

Tsargrad has admitted that the story about surgeon François Favre is entirely fabricated. It was published by a fake media outlet using artificial intelligence, and the journalist’s byline was the result of identity theft. Despite this, the outlet continues to present the story as true, relying on dubious arguments such as claiming that “only the truth provokes annoyance,” or suggesting that the Macrons’ reaction to the defamation campaign proves its validity, since “there wouldn’t be so much noise over nothing.”

The modus operandi behind the fake story of surgeon François Favre closely resembles that of the Russian operation 'Storm 1516,' as described by Viginum, the French agency responsible for monitoring and protecting against foreign interference, and by NewsGuard, a global organisation that evaluates information reliability.

See also our article Francophobes in the Kremlin in which we discuss how: "The campaign targeting France proves that coveted Russian ‘traditional values’ are nothing other than a façade hiding an ugly reality of misogyny, hate speech, and brutal discrimination against minorities".

Read also related cases such as: Transgenders are preparing a coup d'etat in France, or Brigitte Macron used to be a man, or According to a researcher Brigitte Macron was born a man, or French first lady, Brigitte Macron, doesn’t exist.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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