There is a challenge appearing on TikTok called #autismchallenge, and as an autistic person, I am appalled that this has been approved to appear on this app. We are not here to be mocked, we are not here for anyone else's entertainment. Allowing these meltdown videos to be posted invalidates, mocks and belittles our every day struggles.

I urge everyone to sign this petition because it is ignorant, outright bullying, and is discriminatory to autistic people. It is hurtful, and it is hateful.

In TikTok's Community Guidelines, it states:

Hate speech 
We do not tolerate content that attacks or incites violence against an individual or a group of individuals on the basis of protected attributes. We do not allow content that includes hate speech, and we remove it from our platform. We also suspend or ban accounts that have multiple hate speech violations. 

Attacks on protected groups
We define hate speech as content that does or intends to attack, threaten, incite violence against, or dehumanize an individual or a group of individuals on the basis of protected attributes. We also do not allow content that verbally or physically threatens violence or depicts harm to an individual or a group based on any of the following protected attributes:

• Race
• Ethnicity
• National origin
• Religion
• Caste
• Sexual orientation
• Fri
• Gender
• Gender identity
• Serious disease or disability
• Immigration status

Do not post:

• Content that dehumanizes or incites violence or hatred against individuals or groups, based on the attributes listed above, including but not limited to: 
• claiming that they are physically or morally inferior
• calling for or justifying violence against them
• claiming that they are criminals 
• referring negatively to them as animals, inanimate objects, or other non-human entities 
• promoting or justifying exclusion, segregation, or discrimination against them

This challenge is hate speech, and it is an attack on autistic people. Autism is a disability. It is officially classed as a disability, so allowing this challenge to appear on their app goes against their Community Guidelines. It is discrimination, hatred, and ignorance. It perpetuates the stigma, the hatred, and the ignorance, that us autistic people have to deal with, day in, day out. People are being allowed to use this massive platform to spread their ignorance and hatred even further.

It is unacceptable and unforgivable. 

We need to #shutitdown

Thank you if you have signed, please share this petition so we can reach more and more people.

Angela