JK Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in a cyber harassment lawsuit filed by Algerian boxer and Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif.
The pair are mentioned in the body of the complaint, Variety confirmed with Khelif’s attorney Nabil Boudi, over posts made on X (formerly Twitter) about Khelif during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The suit has been filed in Paris against X itself, which gives French authorities scope to investigate anyone alleged to have been involved in cyber harassment against Khelif.
Specifically, the Paris prosecutor’s office will examine “the counts of cyber harassment due to gender, public insult because of gender, public incitement to discrimination and public insult because of origin,” per a statement given to the publisher.
Khelif received a huge amount of online hate and false accusations about her gender during the Paris Olympics, including from high profile accounts with millions of followers.
Rowling shared a number of posts on X about Khelif, some of which were viewed tens of millions of times. In one post she referred to Khelif as a “man” and a “bullying cheat”, presumably referring to the International Boxing Association’s (IBA’s) decision to disqualify Khelif from the 2023 world championships due to an unspecified test that the IBA claimed gave her “competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
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Musk, meanwhile, shared a post by American swimmer Riley Gaines reading, “Men don’t belong in women’s sports,” with the X owner commenting, “Absolutely.”
On the same day that Rowling and Musk made their posts, however, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pushed back with its own statement.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” it reads. “The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.
“These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.”
Khelif went on to win a gold medal in the women’s 66kg. A few days later she filed the complaint.
