Editorial Director of Conspiracy Watch, Rudy Reichstadt has published widely on conspiracy theories and online hate speech, including “Extending the domain of denial: conspiracism and negationism”. He is the author of two non-fiction books (in French), “L’Opium des imbéciles” (2019) and “Au cœur du complot” (2023). A regular contributor to the French newspaper Franc-Tireur, Rudy also co-hosts “Complorama”, a bi-monthly podcast on public radio France Info. He founded Conspiracy Watch (see the French edition here) in 2007.
Thousands of demonstrators shot behind closed doors − with multiple reports that more than 16,500 people have been killed — hundreds of thousands injured, hundreds of executions scheduled. The repression unleashed against the Iranian people by the regime of the Mullahs has reached terrifying proportions. Faced with this methodical state violence, Ayatollah Khamenei and his […]
Rejected by historians, scientists and archaeologists but embraced by millions of readers, Erich von Däniken has died at 90. He became one of the most commercially successful purveyors of pseudo-archaeology and paranormal speculation of the late 20th century, reaching the height of his influence in the late 1960s and 1970s. At the peak of his […]
The verdict comes from the most powerful figure in the White House after Donald Trump. In Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles — the president’s chief of staff — described Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist for a decade.” In the same profile, she labelled White House Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought […]
On November 13, 2015, France was struck by the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. In the heart of Paris, Islamist suicide attackers affiliated with the Islamic State massacred 90 people at the Bataclan concert hall and killed 130 in total during a rampage across the capital’s cafés and streets. The facts of the attacks […]
This week in Paris, ten people went on trial for cyber-bullying Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, by spreading a conspiracy theory as grotesque as it was absurd. For the most serious offenses, prosecutors sought suspended sentences ranging from three to twelve months. Yet Brigitte Macron herself has, in a sense, been […]
The invention of imaginary plots on the one hand and the denial of reality on the other are two sides of the same coin. That is why historical negationism, insofar as it stems from a fundamentally conspiracist approach, has always been at the heart of our editorial concerns. Over more than fifteen years of research […]
On behalf of the undersigned individuals and organizations who exist to educate about antisemitism, international law, the Holocaust and genocide, and who cumulatively and actively work to enhance the prevention of genocide, we find that the International Association of Genocide Scholars (“IAGS”) resolution fails to accurately apply the law and facts of the war in […]
In an era of intense political polarization and weaponized narratives, there always seems to be a conspiracy du jour. From claims of a COVID-19 “plandemic” to endless speculation about Jeffrey Epstein, the frenzy often overshadows the enduring mother of all conspiracies: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That narrative has recently gained new life—not from […]
It began on the evening of Sunday 25 May, when Emmanuel Macron arrived in Vietnam with his wife, Brigitte, at the start of an official tour of Southeast Asia. As the pair disembarked at Hanoi airport, a few press agency cameras caught a fleeting moment: Brigitte Macron’s hand moved toward her husband’s face. He appeared […]
