Billionaires and cyberbullying

In the wake of the recent controversy surrounding Imane Khelif, Lin Yu Ting and their Olympic boxing journeys, Khelif has filed a complaint with the French authorities.

The controversy was sparked by a social media furore at the beginning of the month, when many high profile social media accounts suddenly claimed, without credible evidence, that Imane Khelif is a man, a trans woman and an intersex person. Of course one simply cannot be all, but it appears that a vocal number of bullies didn’t care about the truth, any of the above was enough to discredit the boxer and add fuel to their bullying fire.

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Cyber bullying laws in France

As of last year, France have had new digital laws in place, controlling access to adult content such as deepfake pornography, as well as criminalising damaging practices such as online scams, online harassment and trolling. Such laws have been considered troublesome for social media platforms, as it creates an onus on them to control and monitor content on their sites.

The laws involve fines and custodial sentences, up to five years in prison. Since their enactement, these laws have been tested, most notably in a case where 28 people were convicted of harassing a French influencer, Magali Berdah. These people, in addition to custodial sentences of 4-18 months (where some were suspended) had to pay a fine and compensation to their victim.

Specific individuals

Yesterday in an article by Variety, Nabil Boudy outlined that a legal complaint of online harassment, on behalf of Imane Khelif specifically, referenced JK Rowling and Elon Musk.

Earlier this month, JK Rowling, among others, posted on Twitter/X about what they deemed to be cheating in the Olympics boxing. This followed a fight between Imane Khelif and Angela Carini, in which Carini was knocked out of the bout after just 46 seconds.

Carini capitulated after what appeared to be a facial injury. In response to this, social media lit up with people making inflammatory claims about Khelif. Perhaps the most notable of which is JK Rowling. Rowling claimed that Khelif was a “man” that was punching a woman in the head, causing distress to that woman.

Rowling also claimed that Imane Khelif was a “bullying cheat” and a man revelling in his power over women.

Further to this, other high profile UK based personalities added fuel to the fire, including Sharon Davies, who repeatedly claims Khelif is a man, but also claims Khelif is intersex…somehow.

In what is an ongoing campaign by Davies, including live interviews and almost daily posts, she has claimed that Khelif is intersex, without any credible proof.

The IBAs claims

All of this comes in the wake of the IBA, a now discredited boxing organisation, making these claims about Khelif in 2023. The IBA, with it’s now Russian president and Russian sponsors, has made a number of claims that Khelif was deemed ineligable during the 2023 World Boxing Championship, a competition they manage and regulate.

However, these claims have often been contradictory, with the president Umar Kremlev claiming in 2023 that the tests showed the presence of XY chromosomes. Yet this month he claimed it was a testosterone test, not a Karyotype test.

The IBA’s own statement said it was not a testosterone test, and their CEO Chris Roberts states it was Karyotype test and that the results were “inconclusive”. He says the tests were carried out at WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) accredited laboraties, but WADA has stated it does not carry out sex tests. In fact, the laboratory that the IBA claims carried out these tests is the National Dope Testing Laboratory in New Delhi. This lab lists in their services that they carry out urine tests for prohibited substances and blood tests for Erythropoietin Stimulating Agents, Human Growth Hormone, Blood parameters (also known as a Complete Blood Count where quantity and size of blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin are measured) and Hemoglobin Based Oxygen Carriers. Their services do not include Karyotyping or the testing of chromosomes.

Even more ridiculous are it’s claims that both athletes failed these unclear tests, with “inconclusive results” in both 2022 and 2023, and yet weren’t banned in 2022.

So we’re lead to believe:

• The tests were testosterone tests
• The tests weren’t testosterone tests
• The tests showed XY chromosomes
• The test results were inconclusive and therefore didn’t show XY chromosomes
• The tests happened at a lab that does not provide such services
• The tests happened in a lab not accredited to provide those services

The thing to always remember, when you tell the truth, it’s easy. Lies are complex, hard to remember and you can trip yourself up. The IBA appears to have their laces tied together!

Motive to mislead

Why would the IBA potentially make spurious claims about Khelif?

The IBA is run by a Russian president, who upon taking up his presidency controversially moved IBA headquarters and operations to Russia. Furthermore, he signed up a number of Russian sponsors. Rather than being a world lead organisation, it became a Russian lead and financed organisation. It follows that they would act in Russia’s interests.

Cut to the 2023 World Championship Khelif beat Russian boxer Azalia Amineva. Until then, Amineva had been undefeated. With Khelif’s disqualification, that undefeated status was conveniently preserved.

But was this the only motivation? Of course not! The IBA has a history of allegations of corruption against them and in June 2023 the IOC (International Olympics Committee) stripped the IBA of their status of boxing governing body for the games. Naturally the IBA would have been displeased about this and sought to undermine the IOC and derail the competion that was taken from them. In May the IBA bizzarely announced, though they would now have nothing to do with Olympic Boxing, that they would be paying Olympic boxing gold medalists prize money. This however didn’t create the response they may have anticipated.

But the fight with Carini certainly did. And they knew they’d have the perfect audience for it too. Ready and waiting was a group of gender bigots, those that want everyone to stick to the sex they were assigned at birth and the traditional gender roles that go along with it. Repeatedly we see this group of people scream with outrage, giving no concern to whether the outrage is rooted in truth or not. They give even less concern to the people they harm.

But don’t worry about Carini, the IBA chose to pay her €50,000 too. No doubt, out of the kindness of their hearts.

Rowling appears to spearhead such outrage, with her 14.2 million followers on Twitter/X. Whether she knows the harm she causes or not, and whether she cares about the truth or lack of it, is anyone’s guess. But what is certain, is that she is harming others by using her incredibly large platform to target either whole demographics of people or in this case, specific individuals.

We live in an era where lies are currency, and where those lies lead to very little real world consequences regardless of the damage they cause.

I will certainly be watching this story with great interest. Too often women in sport, and undoubtedly women of colour, become the targets of smear campaigns that seek to undermine their success. They claim it’s about fairness, but if that was the case, we’d see vulnerable people included, not excluded. We wouldn’t see such a clear racial bias in such allegations. I have yet to see a white woman have her sexual or gender identity called into question amid accusations of cheating.

Unfortunately too many get drawn in to agenda driven hate campaigns, whether through ignorance or malice. It must end, there must be consequences.

Irish Women’s Rugby Supporters Club

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