Harry Potter Author JK Rowling and tech billionaire Elon Musk have been named in a complaint filed in France over allegations of “severe cyber harassment” against Olympic champion Iman Khalif.
diverse He confirmed the news on Tuesday, saying the lawsuit was filed against X (formerly Twitter) on August 9, the same day Khalif won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight division at the 2024 Olympics. Khalif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, told the newspaper that this “ensures that[s] “The public prosecutor has full freedom to investigate all persons, including those who used pseudonyms to write the hate speech directed at me. If the public prosecutor charges anyone under the law, it may demand a prison sentence of two to five years and fines of up to tens of thousands of euros.
Boddy added that Donald Trump will be part of the investigation, as the former president tweeted, “So whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be considered as part of the prosecution.”
The controversy surrounding the Algerian boxer began on August 1, when her opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, walked out of the bout after just 46 seconds, saying, “I’ve never been hit so hard in my life.” This led to a wave of unfounded criticism from people like Musk, Rowling, Trump, and Logan Paul — all of whom falsely suggested that Khalif was a transgender woman and/or that she should be banned from women’s sporting events. (Paul later posted, statement (Admitting that I “may be guilty of spreading misinformation.”)
In fact, Khalif, 25, was assigned female at birth, has never identified as transgender, and the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly affirmed her eligibility to compete in the women's division.
The allegations against Khalif stem from the AIBA decision to disqualify Khalif and Taiwanese boxer Li Yu-ting from the 2023 Women's World Championships. At the time, AIBA president Omar Kremlev claimed Khalif was ineligible to compete because genetic tests showed she had “XY chromosomes.” The tests and their results have not been made public, and Khalif has contested the claim.
Last year, the International Boxing Federation was permanently banned from the Olympics after being stripped of its role in organising the 2019 Games amid corruption allegations and evidence the organisation rigged matches in Rio.
Meanwhile, Musk and his social media platform X have become the biggest source of misinformation on the internet. Nearly two years after his $44 billion acquisition of his company, false and misleading information about wars, health, climate change, elections and more has flourished alongside violent and hate speech on digital forums.
Since 2018, Rowling has repeatedly endorsed or made transphobic comments online. Rolling Stone The author has previously been described as “one of the most hated trans people on the internet” and referenced her 2022 novel, Black heartIn March, British broadcaster India Willoughby filed a criminal complaint against Rowling, citing transphobia and alleging she had misidentified her gender, in violation of the country's Equality Act and Gender Recognition Act.
According to the Associated Press, Khalif had previously said she “did not care” about the controversy surrounding her gender and was focused on fighting.
After her Olympic quarter-final win over Hungary's Anna-Luka Hamori, Khalif said: “I want to tell the whole world that I am a woman, and I will remain a woman.”
