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.
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 […]
‘Pogrom’, ‘raid’, ‘terrorist attack’: regardless of the name eventually agreed upon, the massacres of civilians perpetrated by Hamas and its allies in Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, will remain a significant event in the history of anti-Jewish violence. As American historian Deborah Lipstadt pointed out, it constitutes “the most lethal assault against Jews since […]
Rarely have conspiracy theories and their dangers been so much in the spotlight. From the “stolen election” (coming from Donald Trump and his insurrectionist acolytes who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021), vaccines and COVID-19, QAnon and flat earth theories, to invented claims that prominent women are really men, wild assertions about eclipses, […]
It is one of the most sinister and enigmatic true crime stories of the early 21st century, featured in the Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries. The Dupont de Ligonnès affair began on April 21, 2011, when police discovered the decomposing bodies of five people buried under the terrace of a house in Nantes, a city in […]
A unique product "100 per cent Made in France" has gone global. Except there is no cause for celebration in Paris. The successful export is a vile slander, catapulted across social media by an international extreme right cabal that spans the Atlantic and specializes in French-bashing. Picking up on the repugnant falsehood accusing Brigitte Macron, […]
