J.K. Rowling Deletes Some Posts In Wake Of Imane Khelif Lawsuit, Though That May Not Mean What You Think It Means

How the turn tables?

Four months after J.K. Rowling seemed to legally threaten British journalist Rivkah Brown into deleting a tweet in which Brown called Rowling a holocaust denier, the Harry Potter author appears to be going on a deleting spree of her own in an apparent response to a lawsuit filed by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif against Twitter / X.

As noted by Travis Akers and others, Rowling has purportedly deleted 27 tweets and has not tweeted since being named in the lawsuit. Khelif is suing Twitter / X for allowing the perpetuation of a false notion that she is a transgender woman – Khelif was born female, has lived her entire life as a woman and has never identified as transgender or intersex – and that her being "biologically male" gave her an advantage in the women's boxing events at the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics.

The false claim originated from Khelif's disqualification by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the 2023 World Championships, a ruling that was made for undisclosed reasons concerning a blood test that some speculated showed Khelif had abnormal testosterone levels, though that was reportedly never proven.

Rowling was among several high-profile celebrities, including Elon Musk and Logan Paul, who perpetuated the thoroughly debunked claim that Khelif was transgender.

Rowling made several tweets in which she described Khelif's victory over Angela Carini as "a man beating up a woman" and insisted Khelif was a "biological male."

Though Rowling's radio silence on Twitter and deleted tweets might seem like actions taken under legal advisement given their timing, that cannot be proven. For starters, Rowling's incendiary tweets regarding Khelif, including one in which she called Khelif's victory over Carini a "victory for the men's rights movement" and another where she described their bout as "a male punching a female," remain up.

At this point, it is unknown what messages Rowling's deleted tweets contained, but we can at least confirm Rowling is not scrubbing her timeline of all the defamatory thoughts she posted about Khelif.

While many who are sick of Rowling's incessant transphobic remarks are eager for evidence that Khelif's lawsuit will lead to some change in behavior from the author, the celebratory discourse surrounding her deleted tweets appears premature.