French Judiciary Threats Follow Global Online Trend
The French judiciary have faced increased violent rhetoric and death threats after the conviction of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
TLDR
French courts convicted members of the right-wing party Rassemblement National (RN), including its leader Marine Le Pen, of embezzlement. The verdict included an election ban for Le Pen, spurring a barrage of violent threats from RN allies and online commenters.
Mentions of case prosecutors and presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis spiked on VK and TikTok after the final verdict in March. Among these, Perthuis was a primary target of online death threats and doxxing attempts even before the final verdict.
Researchers identified at least 98 messages from March to May 2025 containing threats and violent rhetoric against Perthuis and the judiciary. Threats ranged from calls for violence against the judge to the dissemination of her and her family’s personal details. Some messages alleged that members of the judiciary had participated in disqualifying conspiracies.
The death threats coincided with a general increase in conspiracy theories about and violent rhetoric against the French judicial system. These included accusations of “justice pourrie” (“rotten justice”) and terms such as “islamogauchiste” (“Islamo-Leftist”) and “éliminer les traitres” (“eliminate the traitors”).
Background
On March 31, 2025, a French court convicted French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, her political party Rassemblement National (“National Rally”), and 23 other politicians of embezzling funds from the European Parliament to pay for RN activities.1 The conviction bars Le Pen from running in the upcoming presidential elections, further politicizing the already high profile trial.
Two months before the final court decision, media outlets began reporting that death threats against judges and prosecutors were appearing online in reaction to articles posted by Riposte Laïque (“Secular Response”), a right-wing website. French law enforcement opened an investigation into death threats (most of which originated online). Two days after the March trial, the case judges were placed under police protection due to these threats.2
VK and TikTok Threats
Open Measures examined how these death threats were shared on social media sites, specifically VKontakte (VK) and TikTok. Our researchers observed a general rise in violent rhetoric broadly targeting the French judiciary. Images of de Perthuis accompanied by death threats circulated on VK and far-right websites.
On TikTok, users shared de Perthuis’s full name and address as well as her husband’s name, employment, and company ownership details. A little more than a week after that, in an apparent effort to delegitimize de Perthuis, Riposte Laïque posted a video suggesting de Perthuis had illicit links to Macron’s government and was involved in a global money laundering scheme. This video was widely shared among VK users.
In all, Open Measures researchers found a 300% increase in online violent rhetoric related to judges in France when comparing March through May 2024 to the same time period in 2025. Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) also reported on these trends, using Open Measures data. They found that from May 2024 through March 2025, the share of anti-judicial rhetoric online rose by 327%.3 That trend of increased online hate against judicial personnel in the United States correlates with public comments by Trump administration members and allied media.
Additional Investigations
A 2024 investigation by Reuters further confirmed that serious threats to judicial personnel had sharply increased. These claims were supported by data from the U.S. Marshals Service, who are responsible for protection of federal court personnel. In 2023, agents identified 457 cases of serious threats against federal judges (more than doubling the number of threats between 2019 and 2023).4
Open Measures also found examples where political leaders’ criticism of the judiciary seemed to embolden the public's online threats. For example, British politician and euroskeptic Nigel Farage publicly attacked a judge for his ruling on the legal definition of women, leading to violent comments under a TikTok video published by his talk show, GB News.5 Others have reported on similar trends in Poland, Hungary, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Methodology
Open Measures identified TikTok and VK as platforms of interest for this investigation. Among the narratives on these sites were mentions of "corrupt" judges. Some posts alleged an international money laundering conspiracy connected to President Macron and called for mass executions.
Our researchers identified specific messages targeting de Perthuis—the lead judge who tried Le Pen—and de Perthius’ family members. Many of these messages also included images. They also identified the increased usage of violent rhetoric towards the judiciary from March to May 2025. Included below is a sampling of some of these posts.
Sample Posts of Violent Rhetoric Against the French Judiciary
Analysis
Threats
Our researchers found the most threats against the judiciary on VK and TikTok. The French Far Right began turning to VK in 2017 for its limited content moderation and community of similar prejudices after being removed from Facebook and other social media.6
On VK, multiple images circulated of de Perthuis with the exhortation to “remember this face.” These circulated 40 times in the first day after the March 31, 2025 judgement and for approximately 13 days afterwards. In some cases, the images were accompanied by the image of Bishop Cauchon, who prosecuted Joan of Arc. These images' purpose was to further the narrative of Marine Le Pen as a martyr.
After tracing the image back through links on posts, our researchers found that it originated from Riposte Laïque. There, it appeared alongside comments calling de Perthuis a “Nazi-Islamist” and advocating that she be publicly burned.
Doxxing Activity
On TikTok, users shared de Perthuis’ full legal name and made vague threats that she would pay. Commenters also requested her address to “thank her.” At least five different posts on VK also shared her husband’s name, employment, and ownership stake in companies.
Translated, the post above reads (with redactions):
Rather borderline, Bénédicte Guiraud. Bénédicte Giraud, born in 19[XX], is the wife of Pierre [redacted name], born in 19[XX]. He worked as a publicist and then as a marketing man, before setting up, managing or directing several companies. In 2017, he co-founded [redacted company name], a SaaS with capital of €392,000 and rather vague activities (legal support for programs, other financial auxiliaries), of which he was the first chairman for a year until September 2018. The company went into liquidation and was deregistered in October 2019.
In 2017, he became managing partner of Golden Glaouis (in French “Couilles en or”), a holding company created on June 17, 2016, with capital of €250,000. His wife Bénédicte is a managing partner. Subsequently, the company's capital was increased to €1,244,233, while its headquarters moved to several arrondissements in Paris. On March 23, 2025, the company changed its name to [redacted company name]. Its head office is located at [redacted address].
And on March 28 - four days before the verdict in Marine Le Pen's trial - Bénédicte Giraud-de Perthuis was no longer associated with the management. It should be noted that in the information published on the companies of the Perthuis couple, the names are now anonymized (their companies have exercised their right of opposition with INSEE, so the data concerning them cannot be made public) and the accounts are absent.
These details were also shared on X, adding in a spurious connection between de Perthius and President Macron’s political party.
This narrative about a connection between de Perthius and Macron was picked up in a “background video” published on YouTube and Odysee on April 10, 2025. After circulating on VK, it amassed over 18,000 views. The clip suggested that de Perthuis had ties to Macron’s government through her husband's company Golden Glaouis. It also implied that she was part of a global money laundering scheme.
The video originated from Géopolitique Profonde (“Deep Geopolitics”). The site presents alternative points of view and often parrots far-right talking points. Though the video appeared on April 10, the theories about de Perthuis and Golden Glaouis were first mentioned on VK on April 4.
Televised interviews and user-generated content serving as "dossiers" on Judge de Perthuis also appeared on TikTok. These also implied that de Perthuis had illicit connections to politicians. Researchers identified five TikTok videos that garnered over 820,000 views and 6,500 comments. These videos had the same annotation: “Qui est la juge Bénédicte de Perthuis qui a jugé Marine Lepen…?” (“Who is Bénédicte de Perthuis?”). Many comments under these videos mentioned a “coup d’état” connected to Macron and explicitly asked for de Perthuis’ address.
Violent Rhetoric
VK and TikTok saw a 300% increase in threats against the French judiciary in March–May 2025 compared to March–May 2024. The words “judges” and “magistrates” were accompanied by terms such as “execution,” “purge,” “slut,” and “eliminate.” There was a clear spike after the conviction of Le Pen and other NR members. The greatest increases occurred on VK and TikTok.
Conclusion
It is clear that online threats against the judiciary are growing worldwide, creating real danger for members of the judiciary and their family members. Open Measures researchers identified specific threats against the justices involved in convicting Marine le Pen of embezzlement in France. Additionally, there was a significant rise in violent and dehumanizing language targeting the judiciary on platforms like VK and TikTok.
Though the death threats against Judge de Perthuis were exposed and the perpetrators swiftly convicted on April 9, 2025, the event represents a troubling transfer from other far-right movements across the world.7
Perhaps unique to France, far-right narratives seem to originate from message forums and websites like Riposte Laïque and Geopolitique Profonde. In countries like the United States, these narratives once began on forums but now tend to begin on social media. The French far-right's use of multiple platforms—VK, TikTok, X—suggests they lack a singular online “home” or preferred platform.
Mentions of de Perthuis and other prosecutors followed a relatively short cycle of about 1-2 weeks. However, threats and dissemination of personal information continued for months both before and after the controversial verdict. The threats were amplified only as politically exposed figures and party allies, including President Trump, condemned the conviction. It will be important to watch whether Le Pen’s appeal to her verdict generates similarly aggressive sentiment.
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Elizabeth Pineau and Juliette Jabkhiro, “France's Le Pen convicted of graft, barred from running for president in 2027.” Reuters. 31 March 2025. Here; “Condamnation de Marine Le Pen : retrouvez le détail de l’ensemble des peines prononcées dans l’affaire des assistants FN au Parlement européen.” Le Monde. 31 March 2025. Here.
Gabriel Stargardter, “Judge who barred France's Le Pen gets police protection as Macron condemns threats.” Reuters. 2 April 2025. Here.
“Escalating Online Rhetoric Reflects a Violent Authoritarian Turn Against The Judiciary.” Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. 8 May 2025. Here.
Ibid.