It took an ordinary photo for the rumor to get carried away.
On March 10, two months after her disappearance from the media following her surgical operation, Princess Catherine (Kate Middleton) decided to reappear publicly by publishing a crudely retouched photo, clearly "manipulated", according to experts, showing her smiling, surrounded of his three children.
This post supposed to silence the flow of speculation about his real state of health... only opened Pandora's box and launched the fantasy machine.
The most extravagant conspiracy theories arise – the princess may have fled or died.
“Doubt and informational uncertainty fuel rumors,” explains Margot Déage, sociologist and lecturer at Grenoble-Alpes University.
The mechanism is not new.
“Slander, slander, there will always be something left.”
As early as the 17th century, the English philosopher Francis Bacon, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, commented on the devastating power of rumor, this virus which destroys all critical thinking.
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Pas de vague
, the true story of a professor wrongly accused of harassment
This “flying noise”, as the ancient Greeks called it, was born with humanity, and more precisely with speech.
But, even today, it remains a delicate concept to define, which brings together many facets.
What is a rumor?
“It is unverified information, whose origin and veracity are uncertain, which will spread and spread in a specific environment and context, with a real particularity: it is never confirmed,” analyzes Margot Déage .
It is also, and above all, a communication phenomenon in the sense that rumor circulates from one individual to another through word of mouth, the media or social networks.
“A rumor is born for different reasons: malice, hoax, error, distorted information, desire to cause harm, guilty pleasure of spreading scandalous information, but also simple idleness or panic in the face of a world that scares us… Rumor feeds on everything », underlines the sociologist.
This is the reason why researchers encounter great difficulty in precisely identifying the starting point of a rumor going around, especially since it generally escapes any logic.
The sound of an era
What makes rumor so powerful is that it often provides a sounding board for the anxieties of the population by feeding into current themes in society.
“Yesterday's rumors have nothing to do with today's,” confirms historian Francis Larran.
Certainly, the mechanism has similarities, but the substance must always be linked to the era.
An example ?
The rumor of the white van, which spread last December, sowing panic in Seine-Maritime and Morbihan.
Rumor has it that a light-colored utility vehicle is driving around schools with the aim of kidnapping children.
Parents are panicking, WhatsApp groups are going up in flames.
The rumors are spreading.
Elected officials take up the matter, the police are alerted.
However, in fact, no disappearances have been reported.
Why such irrational excitement?
According to experts, it is no coincidence that this rumor emerged almost at the same time as the trial of Monique Olivier – the ex-wife of Michel Fourniret, on trial for three unresolved cases –, which was held in november.
The media coverage of the trial reminded the general public that the serial killer kidnapped his victims with the complicity of his wife... in a white van.
This simple mention “reactivated” the collective fear of child abduction.
The rumors reflect the times.
This is also why cinema is taking up this theme: three recent films depict the poison of rumor and its consequences.
Inspired by a true story,
Scandalously Yours,
by Thea Sharrock (in theaters), tells the story of an eccentric woman wrongly suspected of being the crow who tyrannizes an entire small English village in 1920. In
The Teacher's Room
, by Ilker Çatak (in theaters), a teacher finds herself in the eye of the storm, just like the French teacher played by François Civil in
No Waves
, directed by Teddy Lussi-Modeste, in theaters on March 27.
German cinema also takes up the subject of rumors in schools, in
The Teachers' Room
, by Ilker Çatak.
Press Department
Here again, it is no coincidence that two films deal with the subject in the school environment: “It is a universe conducive to rumor, because we are very bored there,” points out sociologist Margot Déage.
We talk for the sake of talking, we look for the best story to promote ourselves in front of the group, and we start rumors to “have fun”, “build reputations” or avoid being the target, without realizing the damage that it will generate.”
Once the rumor is started and spreads, the people who are the targets fall into a nightmare.
A relentless gear
“Being the victim of a rumor changes your relationship with the world,” assures director Teddy Lussi-Modeste.
We then constantly look in the other, in what they say or do not say, in the slightest movement of their face, what they think of you.
And it plunges you into a state of perpetual tension…” Anxiety, sleepless nights and dark thoughts, the director knows the bites of rumor well.
His film
No Waves
is inspired by his own story.
On the big screen, the character of François Civil becomes the target of hearsay.
In real life, it was the director who was in turmoil, in 2020. At the time, Teddy Lussi-Modeste was a teacher and was working as a replacement in a suburban college.
One day, he receives a love letter signed by a schoolgirl, but written by two other students.
The beginning of the gears.
“I told myself that it was childish,” he remembers.
I should have considered this letter more seriously and informed my superiors.
This error of judgment cost me dearly…”
A few days later, the young teacher is summoned by the principal education advisor (CPE) who tells him that the student... accuses him of harassment.
The trap closes.
“Two contradictory feelings crossed my mind: disbelief at this lie, but also a presentiment that this story was going to degenerate.
This kind of accusation is like pitch that we want to get rid of as quickly as possible.
I asked the CPE to call the family so that we can resolve the problem during the day, but by wanting to move too quickly, we are doing things wrong…” The rumor is gaining momentum.
Death threats, intimidation, suspicion among some of his colleagues... The vicious spiral will last for months.
A social tsunami
What makes a rumor “successful”?
Why are some of them so popular?
“We are beings of narration,” emphasized the sociologist Pascal Froissart in his work
La Rumeur.
History and fantasies
(Ed. Belin, 2002).
We love stories, true or not.
Everyone listens to the one they want.
The truth is incidental.”
Rumors can therefore affect anyone, at any time.
Sonia, a marketing executive, was a victim within her company.
“One evening at the hotel, after a business seminar, I took the elevator with our sales director.
We went down to the same floor, in full view of everyone, because our rooms were next door.
But a week later, when I got the promotion I had been hoping for for months, a rumor started to circulate about me.
Evil tongues have made a pathetic connection between the two events.
The cruelest thing is that this sexist slander has spread…”
The rumor changes the daily life of this forty-year-old.
The first days, the young executive found support from her colleagues.
Then the lunch invitations become rarer and gradually disappear.
“At first, no one believes the rumor, but insidiously, as the days go by, the poison takes effect,” she notes.
I felt spied on, abandoned, I gradually lost sleep, I was irritable with my loved ones and at the office.
I became paranoid.
I lost my footing.”
This intimate cataclysm also turned the life of director Teddy Lussi-Modeste upside down.
“An accused is always a little radioactive, you should not go near him,” he notes.
This progressive isolation hurts the victims all the more because everyone, after a moment of astonishment, must wage a fight against the poison of lies.
They find themselves alone against an invisible and elusive enemy.
The counterattack
How to defend yourself?
Can we put out the fire?
The first solution that comes to mind seems simple: deny.
“But it’s a double-edged sword,” warns sociologist Margot Déage.
By denying it publicly, we take the risk of fueling the rumor by giving it substance, by offering it even greater visibility.”
An edifying example?
In 1987, Isabelle Adjani went to the set of the 8 p.m. news to quell the rumor that she was dying of AIDS.
Result, according to a study by Pascal Froissart, the number of people informed of the rumor increases from 15 to 48 million… and the number of individuals who believe it from 3.5 to 13.5 million!
Today, social networks offer an even greater sounding board for the slightest rumor.
It only takes one click to launch one and relay it.
Algorithms encourage its massive diffusion: they lock people in a loop that floods them with information coming from their loved ones or from a community that likes the same things: “The “seen on the Internet” is the truth for many people.
And this belief is reinforced when it is people we know or like who relay the information, analyzes Margot Déage.
Anyone can pass along a baseless story unwillingly, and anyone can believe it in return.”
Go back to the source
To really get out of it, the victim can turn to justice, but the path remains strewn with pitfalls.
“The law only offers the possibility of acting against a rumor when it is publicly stated in the newspapers or on the networks,” explains Basile Ader, lawyer specializing in press law.
When it is a non-public defamation, only via word of mouth, you must be able to rely on precise testimonies.
And it’s not always easy.”
When it comes to the protection of privacy, the law allows you to act quickly thanks to the summary procedure.
We take precautionary measures in order to obtain a right of reply or the deletion of messages which relay the rumor.
This procedure works with traditional media.
But on social networks, the real difficulty is first to identify the author of the rumor, then to know how to notify him of the complaint against him.
With the anonymity of the accounts, the problem is almost insoluble.
“However, in the rare cases where we manage to identify him and where we send him a formal notice, the author of a rumor deletes the content and stops spreading the false information,” notes Basile Ader.
Legal work is ongoing to adapt to a digital world that is constantly evolving.
“The legal foundations exist, we must continue to put pressure on the Internet giants to force them to collaborate when there is a problem,” continues the lawyer, according to whom Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google have made real progress, while X (formerly Twitter) and Chinese networks like TikTok are still reluctant to comply with regulations.
“If you are the target of a rumor, I advise you to surround yourself well and contact a psychologist and a lawyer, or a union if the rumor circulating is work-related,” recommends Teddy Lussi-Modeste.
With each of these interlocutors, it is possible to undo the stories in which the rumor locks you.
You have to be able to overcome your guilt.”
Anonymous letters turn life in an English village upside down in Scandalously Yours.
2023 STUDIOCANAL SAS - Parisa Taghizadeh
The fight can seem endless, because the fear of seeing the rumor resurface remains present.
Archived for life on the Internet, some are ready to be reborn from their ashes.
“The Greeks said that rumor never dies, like the gods,” explains historian Francis Larran.
They were convinced that it could not be extinguished, and had found only one solution to get out of it: start a new one!”
Teddy Lussi-Modeste chose a more peaceful solution, using cinema.
“I was able to put this story at a distance as soon as I started writing the screenplay with Audrey Diwan.
But it's a wound that will probably never heal.
With this film, I wanted to understand what had happened to me, question my responsibility, dismantle the spiral in which I was caught, but also the one in which the young girl found herself.
The two characters are trapped in a situation that is degenerating and no one wants to listen to their words.
Thinking, and above all checking the facts before peddling: these are undoubtedly the only remedies to nip any rumor in the bud before it turns into an uncontrollable hydra.
The disinformation war will take place
Fake media websites, fake videos made using artificial intelligence or “fox” launched on social networks, certain foreign secret services compete in imagination to use rumor as a weapon of discredit and mass destruction.
In the so-called “disinformation war,” Russia and its satellite countries are kings.
In “troll factories”, dozens of agents are paid to launch and fuel rumors during vast disinformation operations.
The former boss of the Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, used for years, with his Lakhta project, an army of trolls to destabilize African countries by targeting leaders he wanted to remove.
Since the death of Prigozhin in August, the Russian secret services have taken over and, a few months before the European elections, it is certain that rumors and “fox stories” will be launched.
In France, on February 12, Viginum, the vigilance and protection service against foreign digital interference, already uncovered a network nicknamed “Portal Kombat”, made up of 193 fake Russian sites set up to manipulate opinion.
In this context, caution is required.
The major media are also developing fact-checking services to counter this disinformation.