Everyone has heard of Helen Keller, a blind and deaf woman who managed to learn to speak, attend Harvard, write twelve books, and spread awareness of issues affecting women and the disabled. However, users of the media platform TikTok are doubting that Keller could have accomplished these things, or that she even existed at all.

Despite there being numerous photographs and video recordings of Helen Keller and her famous teacher, Anne Sullivan, the teenagers of TikTok still find reasons to deny her. Many say Keller was a “fraud that didn’t exist” simply because they find it impossible to believe that someone deaf and blind could learn how to talk and write books. This belief just goes to show how deeply ingrained ableism (the belief that able-bodied people are inherently better than those that are handicapped) has become in our society.  As one woman on Medium wrote regarding the TikTok conspiracy, “Does it stem from our own insecurities – could it be that a blind, deaf woman with more success in life than all of us is too much to grasp? Possibly.” 

Ableism such as this is frequently found online, so social media platforms have found ways to deal with it. However, their effectiveness is questionable. TikTok’s approach to this issue has been to delete content relating to the topic, but it hasn’t proven to be very thorough. The original post has since been deleted, and so have most posts containing the hashtag #helenkellerwasntreal. Yet, there are still numerous posts, containing both the aforementioned hashtag and other variations, that exist on TikTok today. Other platforms, like Instagram and Twitter, rely on similar systems along with user reports to find inappropriate and hateful content. Still, content comes at such a fast rate that it cannot all be removed, and just removing it will not change the mindset of those posting it. Once everyone can learn to accept one another as valid individuals with much to offer, social media can become a place where kindness is spread to users all over the globe. As Helen Keller once said, “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see”.