After Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won her first Olympic match earlier this month, the internet debated her gender, given the boxer was previously disqualified from another championship due to alleged “elevated levels of testosterone.”
Though Khelif is a cisgender woman, many accused her of secretly competing as either a transgender woman or a cisgender man.
As she continued in the Games, the online harassment continued. Richard Dawkins, an esteemed British biologist, and one of many vocal figures on the matter, disparaged Khelif for being a “man” who beat up on female boxers during official Olympic matches.
After the Games ended, Khelif filed a legal complaint in France concerning the “misogynist, racist and sexist” harassment she experienced through viral transphobic tweets.
As reported by the Associated Press, French prosecutors will now decide whether to investigate the claims in Khelif’s complaint.
Dawkins posted an inflammatory tweet about Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting.
“Two men, masquerading as women, are being allowed to box against real women in the Olympics,” Dawkins tweeted on July 29.
The URL now returns a message noting the post has been deleted.
Dawkins made other posts that indirectly referenced the controversy and which are still up.
On Aug. 8, he tweeted a photo of a motorcyclist riding with cyclists with the caption “biker who identifies as cyclist wins Tour de France.”
He also retweeted a similar post about a cheetah “who identifies as a man” winning a gold medal over human runners.
And during the controversy, Dawkins claimed he was being censored for his views.
On Aug. 2, Dawkins tweeted that Facebook “deleted” his account “for no apparent reason.”
“We have not received a response through @meta or @facebook for a resolution,” he said. “Was it something I said?”
Nearly a week later, Dawkins said that his Facebook account was taken down because he “tweeted genetically male boxers such as Imane Khelif… should not fight women in the Olympics” and called the ordeal “censorship.”
“Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument,” Dawkins tweeted. “But outright censorship?”
He since deleted that tweet as well, though other X users posted screenshots to keep it alive.
X CEO and prominent anti-trans figure Elon Musk ran with Dawkins’ story immediately.
“Facebook aka ‘Meta’ can never be trusted,” he tweeted about Dawkins’ experience with Meta.
After Musk amplified Dawkins’ theory, Meta’s Public Affairs Director Dani Lever set the record straight and said Dawkins’ account was hacked and summarily shut down for that reason.
“This is not what happened. Dawkins’ account appears to have been compromised, or hacked, so we took action to secure the account and prevent wrong usage of the page,” Lever tweeted. “This action had nothing to do with any content Mr. Dawkins posted, and we are in the process of restoring the page as soon as it is secured.”
Dawkins’ Facebook page is up and running as of publication.
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