TikTok must stop the spread of catapult animal cruelty videos.
Across the UK, there is growing concern about young people using catapults to shoot and kill birds, squirrels and other animals, then sharing footage of their actions on TikTok. 

Some of this content reportedly includes kill tallies, turning animal cruelty into a competition and potentially encouraging others to copy the behaviour. It is well established that animal cruelty can be associated with wider patterns of violence, including violence towards humans. This is not something that should be dismissed or ignored.

This is not just an online issue. Animals are being harmed in our communities. I have personally witnessed this behaviour in my local area on three separate occasions. The longer this behaviour is allowed to spread unchecked, the greater the risk that it will become normalised and escalate. When young people are encouraged by online trends, peer approval and kill tallies to take pleasure in harming animals, we should be deeply concerned about where this behaviour could lead. It is frightening to see this happening in our communities, and we should not have to wait until the situation gets worse before meaningful action is taken. Prevention matters. TikTok has an opportunity and a responsibility - to intervene now, before more animals are harmed and this behaviour becomes even more widespread.

TikTok must take responsibility for the content circulating on its platform.

We are calling on TikTok to:

1. Proactively identify and remove videos depicting animal cruelty or celebrating the killing of animals, rather than relying solely on individual users to report them.
2. Remove accounts repeatedly posting or promoting animal cruelty, including accounts encouraging others to participate.
3. Use its moderation technology to identify reuploads, related hashtags and accounts sharing substantially similar content.
4. Investigate kill tallies and competitive content that may encourage further harm to animals.
   Publish a clear explanation of how this content is being moderated and what additional action will be taken.
5. Animal cruelty should never be entertainment, a competition or a way to gain views and followers.

We understand that content moderation is complex, but that cannot be an excuse for allowing harmful material to continue circulating unchecked.

We ask TikTok to act urgently to protect animals, discourage copycat behaviour and stop its platform from being used to promote animal cruelty.

Sign this petition to demand meaningful action from TikTok.