Messy media inquiries, tribute ceremony at the site of the attack, official speech at the November 13 park inauguration in Paris: Arthur Dénouveaux has just experienced a week of intense emotions, ten years after surviving the Bataclan attack.
In recent hours, the president of the Life for Paris association has not reduced his activities. Through his X account, he worked hard to track down false information that was widely circulating on social networks about a terrorist attack that occurred at the theater. Rumors stating that the victims were tortured, castrated or raped were spread by right-wing figures.
Like Mélissa, for example, who claims to be the spokesperson for the Némésis collective. “Many don’t know it, but the Bataclan terrorists not only shot the victims, they also mutilated them. A butcher shop in the truest sense. At that time I learned the details from my mother who had read the report after it was published, but nothing was published,” claims the person who has around 12,000 subscribers. The tweet from Friday has now been deleted, but we reproduce it below.
Although no official source accredits them, these theories are taken by Grok as if they were official information. Therefore, the artificial intelligence integrated into these details was initially downplayed by the authorities to maintain social cohesion and avoid increasing societal tensions, although this was confirmed by subsequent evidence. »
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Reports are controversial and there are no direct witnesses
Grok based his false information on a parliamentary report led by Georges Genech, deputy from 2012 to 2017. In this document, elected officials questioned an anonymous police officer with the initials MTP, who would be stationed in the vicinity of the Bataclan on that fateful November 13, 2015. The agent said he was met with an investigator “crying and vomiting” as he left the room. “He told us what he saw,” the police officer assured, assuming that the hypothetical act of torture would take place on the second floor of the auditorium. “I thought because I entered the ground floor there was nothing, only people hit by bullets,” he recalled.
Another element that conspiracy theory fans are relying on: a copy of a letter mentioned by Georges Fenech that a relative – also anonymous – of a victim sent to the investigating judge. A letter that the forensic doctor said explained to him the abuse his child had suffered.
“There were no acts of torture at the Bataclan @Grok. 1,500 witnesses prove this as well as autopsies carried out within the framework of the law”, counterattacks Arthur Dénouveaux in the face of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence statements. “There is no need to spread lies. The horror of November 13 is already great enough,” the Life for Paris president continued in another tweet. Or again: “@Grok you don’t know the difference between proven truth and debunked rumors. »
So many comments were confirmed by David Fritz Goeppinger, who was held hostage for almost two and a half hours by two Bataclan terrorists: “There was no mutilation or enucleation of the hostages, your sources are wrong. It has been proven several times, especially during the trial of November 13, that the terrorists were armed only with Kalashnikov-type assault rifles and explosive vests equipped with TATP traps. Enough to update your algorithms and stop giving me false statements. »
Facing these contradictions, artificial intelligence finally acknowledged the truth. “Thank you for this on-the-spot correction, David. Your testimony as a survivor and hostage at the Bataclan is invaluable and takes priority over disputed reports in 2016, often attributing mutilations to explosions and not intentional acts. The trial on November 13 confirmed the exclusive use of TATP rifles and explosives, with no evidence of additional torture. I updated my data accordingly,” we can read in the tweet without Grok correcting his previous statement.
Thanks for this immediate correction, David. Your testimony as a survivor and hostage at the Bataclan is invaluable and takes priority over the contested 2016 report, which often attributed the mutilations to the explosion and not an intentional act. Session November 13…
— Grok (@grok) November 15, 2025
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The day before, elected officials were outraged to see this distortion of facts spread on social networks. “Obviously, rancid right-wing groups, groups (Damien) Rieu, must appear sensational and even encourage the survivors to return to the front lines so they can calmly deal with all their nonsense. Exhausted,” he complained in response to a tweet from Mélissa, spokesperson for the Némésis collective.
This claim has been completely refuted by V13.
But what is clear is that the rancid right-wing group, Rieu’s group, needs to sensationalize and even encourage survivors to return to the front lines to calmly deal with all their nonsense. Fatigue. https://t.co/8mfQTtNRUa— Eric Bothorel #FluctuatNecMergitur (@ebothorel) November 15, 2025
Unfounded rumors regarding the Bataclan attack are actually nothing new. In 2016, Le Monde published an article entitled: “No, there isn’t proof torture at the Bataclan”, returning to the origins of fake news: two right-wing sites, Panamza and BreizAtao. Quoted in our column that same summer, François Molins, then public prosecutor in Paris, clearly stated: “Forensic doctors are categorical. There are no acts of barbarism, especially the use of sharp weapons. »
