Doubt has crept in since the publication of a first fake photo on March 10.
For Mother's Day in the United Kingdom, Kate Middleton shared with her community a photo of herself and her children to reassure her about her state of health: this was the first image of the Princess of Wales since her withdrawal from the public sphere in January, after having undergone “abdominal surgery”.
But faced with his absence and the various inconsistencies visible in his portrait, the concern of royal fans has grown.
To the point of turning into countless conspiracy theories.
The next day, after analyzing the photo, the major press agencies spoke out and unpublished it.
Could this altered photo - hands added, features smoothed, background elements removed - hide another truth?
Under pressure, Prince William's wife confessed: “Like any amateur photographer, I sometimes experiment by editing,” she wrote in a message posted on Instagram on March 11.
I wanted to apologize for any confusion that the family portrait we shared yesterday may have caused.”
Alas, three days later, on March 15, the AFP announced that Kensington no longer constituted “a reliable source” of information.
Also read “Both hands have been added, that’s for sure”: an expert deciphers the faked photo of Kate Middleton
In a video shared on Friday March 22, the Princess of Wales announced that she was, in fact, suffering from cancer and had started preventive chemotherapy.
One would have thought that the speculations would die down, but for several days they seem to have intensified.
Some people mention, in particular, his alliance which would disappear from the new sequence, at 1 minute 19. For them, there is no doubt: Wales have once again used artificial intelligence.
So what's going on with Kate Middleton?
How to interpret these counter-investigations which abound on the Internet?
How can we avoid getting caught in the trap of
fake news
and conspiracy theory?
Marie Peltier, Belgian historian specializing in the history of propaganda, gives
some explanations to the phenomenon for
Madame Figaro .
Power dynamics
Madame Figaro.-
The Internet is ablaze with Kate Middleton's new video.
Is it legitimate to believe that Kensington Palace is hiding things from us?
Marie Peltier.-
Obviously, but the question is to know to what extent and why.
We must understand that it is the nature of politics - or of power in general - not to give all the information to the public.
Large institutions hide things, just like our employer doesn't always tell us everything.
It’s inherent in power dynamics.
But this is not necessarily done with malicious intent as conspiracy theories suggest.
How are they built?
To popularize the subject, conspiracy is the fact of believing that what is presented as the official account of an event would be staged to serve hidden interests, that it would be deceitful and manipulative.
Moreover, if there has obviously been a resurgence of conspiracy since the 2000s, linked in part to the massification of the web, it has in reality always existed, it is culturally anchored in our societies.
For what? Where does this fantasy that we are being lied to come from?
A divide between citizens and politics and a widespread disappointment with democracy.
Conspiracy is based on an anti-institutional imagination, on the idea that everything that represents the institution - not just the royal family, but also the State, the justice system, or even the media - conceals the truth.
We like the idea that the elite would act badly.
There is a distrust of the greatest.
Furthermore, social networks have exacerbated the emotional side of things.
Conspiracyism is a tool that fills a void and responds to a human need.
The lack of modernity and opacity of the British monarchy fuels conspiracy theories
Marie Peltier
A lack of modernity
The royal family is particularly affected by these kinds of theories...
And this has always been the case!
It represents strength and is loaded with symbolism.
Conspiracy embodies the story, the one that is impalpable.
Human beings need a story to tell themselves when they don't completely understand things.
Everything mysterious feeds this phenomenon and the royal family excels at this.
We want to decode what's going on with them.
Watch the series and documentaries that have recently been released about him.
There is a passion from the general public, particularly because of its colonial past and the fact that it is one of the greatest world powers.
In your opinion, could Kensington Palace have avoided this pitfall if it had better managed its communication?
No, I do not think so.
Conspiracy theories are so entrenched in our societies that they hardly need any stimulus.
On the other hand, the failed communication from Kensington Palace was a godsend for amplifying the debates.
And this is a problem inherent to the English royal family, which does not know how to communicate long-term.
I'm thinking in particular of the divorce of Charles and Diana, where like now, things took a long time to be said.
The Crown has this old aristocratic reflex of wanting to keep up appearances, it is an “old-fashioned” communication that no longer works at all with current codes.
People want to be informed live about what's happening.
It is, for them, more authentic.
There is a problem of modernity and obviously, a lack of opacity.
I think today they would do well to be more transparent.
Kate Middleton is an emblematic figure of the monarchy, very popular with the British; and yet it is on her that we are focusing... We are also talking about “Katespiracy”.
It’s precisely the opposite!
We see institutions as something cold and hermetic.
Kate put some human back into it.
Conspiracy thrives on symbols and needs heroes and executioners to succeed in spreading.
Here, the royal family is the enemy and the Princess of Wales is the one who needs to be saved.
He is the heroic figure.
It's interesting to draw the parallel with Lady Diana, since we see the same dynamic there: a much-loved and popular figure, who died in an accident which still generates all kinds of conspiracy theories today.
She herself had freed herself from the system;
there was then this idea of a cabal against her.
In the conspiracy software, she and Kate Middleton, these kind faces, are necessarily victims of malicious invective.
Also read: Richard Fitzwilliams on Kate Middleton's cancer: "She looks vulnerable, which is unusual for her"
The power of images
On X, videos circulate and raise questions, indeed. Slow motion shows, for example, Kate Middleton's ring suddenly disappearing from the screen. How not to get caught in a trap?
It is very important to understand that it is the very method of conspiracy to use images while pretending to dissect them.
It's a technique!
Remember the Charlie Hebdo attack and this video showing the mirror of the police car changing color, or those of September 11, which are still the target of numerous decryptions.
Tracking down images, the so-called proof of staging, is the nature of conspiracy theories.
But we can make the images say whatever we want...
Have the news agencies even declared that Kensington Palace is no longer "a reliable source"...
Certainly, but again, do we even know the context of these inconsistencies?
Once again conspiracy is based on malice, which is not inherent in “lies” or “cover-up” either.
You have to be very careful about turnkey speeches.
No one is immune to this, everyone browses the Internet today and we are all susceptible to this kind of rhetoric, especially when these are subjects that affect us.
Do you have any advice to give?
I believe it is important to know how to let go of certain information.
We are not omnipotent, we cannot know everything about everything, and the Internet has given us the illusion that we can reestablish truths with one click.
But unfortunately this is not the case.