The Repercussion Group Issues Urgent White Paper Warning Against “Run It Straight” and RUNIT Championship League

The paper draws attention to the alarming rise of “Run It Straight” - a social media challenge where two individuals sprint toward each other and collide at full force - and the for-profit competitions it has spawned, including the RUNIT Championship League.

The White Paper warns that these events, glamorised and monetised across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, are exposing participants - often young men - to biomechanical forces equivalent to unbelted car crashes. The result: a high risk of acute brain trauma, catastrophic neck and spine injury, and the longer-term development of neurodegenerative diseases.

“This is not sport - it is entertainment built on real human harm,” said Dr. Stephen T. Casper, Medical Historian and lead author of the White Paper. “These are engineered systems for brain injury, exploiting social media’s viral reach to normalise collisions that can permanently alter lives.”

The Repercussion Group includes experts from neuroscience, neurology, sports medicine, public health, and caregiving communities. Many of its members have firsthand experience supporting individuals living with traumatic brain injury or related conditions such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The White Paper argues that these activities are not governed by ethical safeguards or informed consent. Instead, they are driven by social and economic incentives that prey on vulnerable individuals while insulating profit-makers from liability. Among the paper’s key recommendations:

• Public warnings on the risks of concussive and subconcussive impacts
  
  
• National and international bans on monetised “Run It Straight”-style contests
  
  
• Removal or demonetization of such content on major social media platforms
  
  
• Education initiatives in schools about the dangers of high-impact collisions
  
  
• Policy reform to outlaw the organisation and promotion of these events
  
  
• Research funding to assess the long-term harm caused by these practices
  
  

“Turning human collisions into viral spectacle is a failure of ethical leadership in both sport and tech,” said Dr. Karen Hind, a co-author and Honorary Professor at Lancaster University, UK. “We are calling for immediate policy intervention to protect individuals, particularly young people, from exploitation and irreversible harm.”

The Repercussion Group emphasises that responsibility lies not only with the event organisers but with the platforms that host, promote, and profit from this content. In parallel with historical precedents like “dwarf tossing,” these events reflect a deeper cultural failure to safeguard bodily integrity in the name of entertainment.

The full White Paper and list of endorsing authors is available at: https://www.repercussiongroup.com