Ten people have been found guilty of cyberbullying French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte Macron after making a series of malicious comments about her gender identity and age.

For years, Brigitte has infamously faced an onslaught of online and tabloid scrutiny for the 24-year age difference between herself and the French president.

At the same time, conspiratorial social media users have long accused the French first lady of being a transgender woman born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux — the name of her older brother.

With online conspiracies and harassment continuing to date, the couple eventually chose to challenge the incessant barbs in court.

This week, a Paris court convicted ten defendants over their targeted harassment of Brigitte Macron.

The court handed down sentences which included fines, social media bans, mandatory cyberbullying awareness training and, for eight of the defendants, suspended jail terms.

In an interview on French television network TF1, Brigitte said she hoped the case would set an example against online harassment.

"I'm constantly by the side of teenagers fighting against bullying,” she said.

“If I don't lead by example, it's going to be difficult.”

Cyberbully goes straight to jail

The defendants were eight men and two women aged 41 to 65 years of age — eight of whom received suspended jail sentences ranging between two and eight months.

One defendant who failed to make an appearance in court meanwhile received six months in prison for his absence.

Three of the more prominent offenders had their social media accounts suspended for six months, while the defendants were unilaterally made to complete a course against online hate speech at their own expense.

"The most important things are the prevention courses and the suspension of some of the accounts,” said Brigitte’s lawyer Jean Ennochi.

Some of the defendents in court. Photo: Supplied

The defendants were accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” which not only focused on Brigitte’s gender but also linked her age-gap with Emmanuel to paedophilia.

For nearly a decade, commenters have lambasted Brigitte for first meeting the president while she was a teacher at his school — though judge Thierry Donard found the defendants comments had tipped into “intentionally harming the complainant”.

Indeed, Donard described claims of Brigitte’s “alleged paedophilia” as “malicious, degrading, and insulting”.

Speaking with TF1, Brigitte said people had repeatedly ignored evidence of her gender and, in one case, broken into her “tax website” to modify her identity details.

“A birth certificate is not nothing,” she said.

“It is a father or a mother who goes to declare their child, who says who he is or who she is.”

Following the court outcome, gallerist, writer and convicted cyberbully Bertrand Scholler said he would appeal his suspended six-month jail sentence.

"This is horrible. It's abominable," the 55-year-old told reporters.

"This shows just how far French society is drifting toward less freedom of speech.”

From content to courts

Notably, two of the largest prison sentences were handed out to online personalities who were cited in several judicial investigations.

The trial was heavily covered in France, with media surrounding Brigitte Macron (circled in red) at court appearances. Photo: Supplied

Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, reportedly used the pseudonym Zoé Sagan to promote rumours of transgenderism about Brigitte to an audience of 200,000 followers on X.

He received an eight-month sentence despite arguing his posts were satirical.

Self-described “medium, whistleblower, and journalist” Delphine Jegousse – who received a six-month sentence – was also considered to have played a significant part in spreading conspiracies about Brigitte’s gender after she produced a four-hour YouTube video on the subject in 2021.

Popular right-wing influencer Candace Owens is also facing a separate, high-profile US defamation lawsuit from the Macrons after Owens produced a series called ‘Becoming Brigitte’.

Speaking with Information Age, UNSW professor in cybercrime, cyberwar and cyberterror, Richard Buckland, said the case highlighted a “balancing act” regarding free speech.

“Obviously great hurt has been caused to Brigitte and those close to her,” Buckland said.

“If this was happening in a playground to a child it would be seen as shameful bullying.

“On the other hand, she is an adult and free speech is really important.

“In Australia some have called this ‘the right to offend’.”

Buckland noted that in the case of Brigitte Macron, it was “hard to see how free speech arguments could justify the harm caused”, but it was also easy to see how powerful people could adopt similar online bullying claims to “stop legitimate satire and critical speech”.

“We may be at a very interesting turning point,” he said.

“I hope we move very slowly in adopting such measures – including jail time – here in Australia and watch carefully to learn from experiences like this overseas.”