Macron and Brigitte: Scandal about video causes excitement in Vietnam!

Macron and Brigitte: Scandal about video causes excitement in Vietnam!

A video by Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, which was recorded in Vietnam during their arrival, caused great excitement. In the recording, Brigitte Macron easily hits her husband in the face, which triggered speculation and rumors about violence between the couple. Emmanuel Macron waved to the camera after a short look, while his environment described this scene as a humorous moment before the upcoming journey. However, it was different on social media, where a Russian broadcaster, RT, had previously indicated that Macron was beaten by his wife. This type of disinformation has again fueled the debates about the French presidency. reported .

disinformation in the current political landscape

The current situation is also tense up by the geopolitical situation in Europe, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. In his speech, Emmanuel Macron recently emphasized how important it is for France and the European allies to prepare themselves against the "Russian threat". These statements were considered "threatening" by the Russian government. The Russian journalist Dmitri Kisselev accused Macron in one of his programs that the French military would fail and claimed that France was missing from essential armaments. Slate informed .

Kisselev's views also include bizarre conspiracy theories that Brigitte Macron represent as a man and pursue the goal of distracting from other important topics. Such false information is partial excesses of a major problem: the spread of fake news and disinformation has increased in recent years and ensures that trust in political and media institutions is disappearing. Experts emphasize that fake news is particularly widespread on social media, where they are often taken up and spread by political actors. BPB analyzed .

The effects on public perception

These tendencies not only affect the public perception of politicians, but also the general acceptance of information in society. Low trust in the media and the political landscape enables false information to spread out unfiltered. This means that little weight has long been placed on the reception ability of consumers. In order to work, initiatives such as "EU vs. disinfo" and the European Digital Media Observatory have been created. These are intended to help clarify the citizens over disinformation and to improve the handling of media BPB explained .

at a time when the boundaries between truth and lie on social media are increasingly blurry, promoting media literacy remains one of the central challenges for society. It is all the more important that both political actors and the public learn to distinguish between reliable and misleading information.