What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau mean by a false social contract?

In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau describes a "fraudulent" or false social contract that emerged as civil society developed.123

Rousseau argued that this contract was established primarily to protect the interests of the wealthy. By formalizing the concept of private property, this arrangement transformed de facto possession into legal ownership, effectively keeping the poor dispossessed and maintaining social inequality.132

Because the poor received significantly fewer benefits from this agreement than the rich, Rousseau viewed it as a deceptive bargain that served to protect the status quo rather than ensure true justice or liberty. This stands in direct contrast to the "genuine" social contract he later proposed in his work The Social Contract, which he envisioned as a means for citizens to recover their liberty through obedience to the general will.123