Olympic champion sues platform X over harassment during Paris games

Olympic gold medallist Imane Khelif from Algeria has filed a complaint against platform X (formerly Twitter) in a Paris court. Her lawyers claim that the platform contributed to the athlete's harassment during the Olympic Games.

Imane Khelif filed a complaint against Twitter (now X) in the Paris disciplinary court, which is the centre for combating hate speech online. The 25-year-old boxer, who won the Olympic final in her category on 9 August, was subjected to an online hate campaign regarding her gender for days.

The complaint, seen by the French newspaper "Le Monde," concerns "moral harassment" online. Khelif's victory on 1 August, resulting from the withdrawal of Italian boxer Angela Carini in the quarterfinals, sparked a flood of hateful messages on social media. The boxer was described as a "transgender" person deliberately competing in the wrong category and even as a "man" guilty of "violence against women."

The Algerian's lawyer, Nabil Boudi, stated in the complaint that "speculations fuelled by hateful individuals" were widely distributed on the X platform, where they were viewed over 100 million times. According to Boudi, the controversy turned into a real "ordeal" for the 25-year-old boxer competing in the Olympic Games. The complaint was filed in the Paris court a few hours before Khelif won the gold medal in the final fight against Liu Yang from China.