Olympic champion files legal action against platform X over harassment

Olympic gold medalist 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.

Khelif filed a complaint against Twitter (now X) in the Paris correctional court, the center for combating hate speech online. The 25-year-old boxer, who won the Olympic final in her category on August 9, endured an online hate campaign about her gender for days.

The complaint, seen by the French newspaper Le Monde, concerns "moral harassment" online. Khelif's victory on August 1, resulting from the withdrawal of Italian boxer Angela Carini in the quarterfinals, sparked a flood of hateful messages on social media. She 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 fueled 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, who was 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.