Facebook has nuked the account of famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins after he said that genetically male boxers should not be allowed to fight women in the Olympics.
On Saturday morning, Dawkins posted on X about the shocking censorship – saying that there was no reason given for the sudden removal of his account.
“My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?”
[Dawkins presumably meant that he posted it on Facebook, not “tweeted.”]My entire @facebook account has been deleted, seemingly (no reason given) because I tweeted that genetically male boxers such as Imane Khalif (XY undisputed) should not fight women in Olympics. Of course my opinion is open to civilised argument. But outright censorship?
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) August 10, 2024
Social media exploded in controversy following a women’s Olympic boxing match between Italy’s Angela Carini and Imane Khelif of Algeria – in which Carini quit just 46 seconds into the fight after receiving a barrage of powerful punches from Khelif.
Notably, the International Boxing Association banned Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting from last year’s World Boxing Championships for having failed gender testing.
“This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors,” the IBA said in a statement.
Furthermore, IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS that DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”
As Why Evolution Is True opines;
There are debates about whether the two boxers in question were of XY chromosome constitution, had high levels of testosterone (they had previously been disqualified in other competitions), or had genetic disorders of sex development (DSDs).
But regardless, to ban someone’s account for expressing the opinion that genetically male boxers shouldn’t fight against biological women is unconscionable. Richard said that one of the boxers is “XY undisputed,” and since I’ve been out of touch, that may be the case. And if that is the case, then there is a real debate to be had.
There’s a general debate to be had about these boxers anyway since, last I heard, people were arguing about every aspect of the two is subject to dispute.
Facebook botched this one very badly, and should restore Dawkins’s account.
