AUTISTIC MINORITY INTERNATIONAL WWW.A UTISTIC MINO RITY.O RG Geneva, 25 November 2014 Oral statement at the seventh session of the Forum on Minority Issues ("Preventing and Addressing Violence and Atrocity Crimes Targeted against Minorities") of the. United Nations Human Rights Council ONLINE HATE SPEECH AND INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE AGAINST AUTISTICS Thank you, Mister Chair. Autistic self-advocates view autism not as something to be prevented or cured, but as a lifelong neurological difference that is equally valid. Autism is a distinct culture and identity, and we suffer the same discrimination as other minorities. Much remains to be done to ensure the full-and equal participation of the autistic minority, estimated at seventy million people, or one percent of the world's population, in all areas of public, economic, and social life, as called for by a 2012 resolution of the UN General Assembly. Our full and equal participation is stifled in particular by the persistent and widespread bias and prejudice against persons on the autism spectrum. The public discourse on autism is dominated by negative stereotypes. For example, the media regularly blame school shootings on the perpetrators having had Asperger's, a condition on the autism spectrum, mostly without any evidence to substantiate such a claim. Fact is, autistics are much more likely to become the victims of violence. While "aspie" is a term of affection for persons diagnosed with Asperger's, googling the phrase "aspies should" in English-speaking countries currently results in the autocomplete suggestions "aspies should be locked up" and "aspies should die". Googling "autistic child should", the autocomplete suggestion is "autistic child should be euthanized". Due to our organization's advocacy efforts, Google removed autocomplete suggestions such as "autistics are evil", "autistics are not human", "autistics should die", and "autistics should be euthanized", However, when searching "autistics are",- Google still suggests "autistics are dangerous" and "autistics should be killed" as related searches at the bottom of search result pages. The search phrase "autistic persons" still returns the related searches suggestions "autistic people need to die" and "autistic people should [be] killed". The search phrase "autistic people should" yields the related searches suggestions "autistic people should die" and "autistic people should be killed". When searching for the phrase "autistic people should" on Microsoft's search engine Bing, the related searches suggestions are "I Hate Autistic_ People", "Autistic People Should Die", and "Autistic People Should Be Killed". On Yahoo, the search phrases "autistics are" and "autistics should" result in the autocomplete and. related searches suggestions "autistics are not human" and "autistics should die", respectively, while "autistic pople" autocompletes as "autistic people should the", and the search phrase "autistic people should" triggers the autocomplete and related searches suggestion