Olympic boxing champion reportedly names Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling in online harassment complaint | CBC Sports (2024)

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News

· Posted: Aug 14, 2024 11:25 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 14

The boxing champion atthe centreof a worldwide clash over sex and gender identityin sports has reportedly namedElon Musk and author J.K. Rowling in an online harassment complaint being investigated by French prosecutors.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, whowon a gold medalin the women's welterweight division in the 2024 Paris Olympics,filed a legal complaint in France for online harassment afterfalse claims erupted online that Khelif was transgender or a "biological man."

In a statementposted Saturdayto Instagram, Khelif's lawyer,Nabil Boudi, alleged "aggravated cyber-harassment" targeting Khelif. He described it as a "misogynist, racist and sexist campaign" against the boxer.

OnWednesday, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmedit had received the complaint and its Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crime had opened an investigation on charges of "cyber harassment based on gender, public insults based on gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insults on the basis of origin."

Khelif's legal complaint was filed against social media platforms, including X,instead of a specific perpetrator. This is a common formulation under French law that leaves it up to investigators to determine which person or organization may have been at fault, notes the Associated Press.

That "ensures that the prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people," including those who may have used pseudonyms,Boudi told the news outlet Variety in an interview.

He reportedly told Variety that "J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others."

CBC Newsreached out to Boudi for further confirmation but has not heard back.

WATCH | Khelif wins gold:

Worldwide clash

Khelif was thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight of the Games, when Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out just 46 seconds into the match after taking a hit to the face.

Online claims about Khelif's gender wereamplified by celebritiesincludingElon Musk, authorJ.K. Rowling, brothers Logan and Jake Paul — former YouTube stars who have become involved in wrestling and boxing, respectively—and Caitlyn Jenner, a retired Olympic gold-medallist and transgender woman.

"Could any picture sum up our new men's rights movement better? The smirk of a male whoknows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head, and whose life's ambition he's just shattered," Rowlingsaid onX, formerly known as Twitter.

TheHarry Potterauthor hasbecome known for hercontroversial commentsabout the transgender community.

Musk didn't make adirect comment online, but shareda post by U.S. swimmer Riley Gainesthat said "Men don't belong in women's sports." Above the post, Musk wrote, "Absolutely."

Whether or not Khelif's online harassment case has legalconsequences for those named in it, the fact that a case has been brought forward at all makes an "absolutely vital" publicstatement about our acceptance of the harmful things people sayonline,said Shana MacDonald, the O'DonovanChair in communication at the University of Waterloo.

"Atthe moment with Twitter, all the guard rails are off. And there's no wayto have accountability,"MacDonald, who studies digitalmedia and disinformation, told CBC News.

'Transphobicwitch hunt'

The International Olympic Committee has defendedKhelif, saying in anAug. 1 statementthat "every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination." It also decriedthe "misleading information" circulating about Khelif.

Several of the false accusations on social media cited an incident in March 2023, whentheInternational Boxing Association (IBA), the sport's governing body,disqualified Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-tingof Taiwan from the world championships in New Delhi.

The IBA saidthey had failedeligibility tests for the women's competition, withoutspecifying what those tests were.

"The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure —especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years," the IOC's Aug. 1statement read.

LISTEN | The fraught history of sex tests inwomen's sports:

The disinformation campaign against Khelif is especially troubling because it uses her as avehicleto ramp up the "transphobic witch hunt" that's been happening within sports, said MacDonald.

"It becomes a vector for spreading this really egregious,I would say, hateful, disinformation that'spurposely intending to be harmful," she said.

But the associate professorsays she's starting to see a shift in tone, with more harmful rhetoric being called out. She notes that the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in the U.S., for instance, is leading byexample.

"I'm feeling hopefulfor public discourse that all of the sudden thisnasty versionof being in the world is kind of being called out."

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