Building Community and Identity Online: A Content Analysis of Highly Viewed #Autism TikTok Videos.

Background: TikTok is a popular social media site for connecting with others online where many users also access and share health-related information. Previous studies have characterized information shared about specific disabilities on TikTok, but descriptions of autism-related content are lacking. Understanding the information shared about autism on TikTok is important to understanding health communication in this space, the lived experiences of autistic people, and the role that social media platforms play in building community through connection, understanding, and inclusion. Methods: We used an open-source data scraper to identify and download videos with at least 1 million views and that used the hashtag #autism from TikTok. Using a joint inductive and deductive approach, we performed a content analysis of videos. We identified six content topics that described video content (e.g., positive social interactions and features of autism), and three categories that described video purpose (e.g., educational, experiential, and observational). We used descriptive statistics to describe characteristics of who was in the TikTok videos. Results: We analyzed Conclusions: Highly viewed #autism TikTok videos primarily share autistic people's individual experiences rather than providing general education about autism. However, autistic Black, Indigenous, and people of color may have difficulty finding others that represent them along both disability and racial dimensions. Future research should investigate autistic people's motivations for using TikTok, and how #autism content shapes social discourse about autism.