Social media firms told to take down dangerous driving content in wake of fatal A66 crash
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The government has told social media companies to take down content showing people driving the wrong way down roads following a fatal crash over the weekend.
Two police officers were among seven people killed when a car travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into a force vehicle on the A66 near Middlesbrough.
There have been reports that at least one of the young men who died in the collision early on Saturday had been involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos.
Asked about these reports this morning, the defence minister, Luke Pollard, said social media platforms must remove content glorifying dangerous driving or else the government will use powers under the Online Safety Act to compel them to take the videos down. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, Pollard said:
We’ve communicated to those social media platforms that have been hosting content that celebrates this type of dangerous behaviour on our roads to take down that content.
I think we all need to give the police time, but there’s also things we can be doing in the meantime to make sure that the internet is a safer place for everyone, that doesn’t celebrate and load views and therefore financial incentives on people to generate such awful content. I want to see social media companies step up.
It’s one of the reasons they’ve argued against some of the regulations, saying they can police themselves. Well this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate it. Remove the content that celebrates dangerous behaviour on our roads.
The issue of lax social media regulation of dangerous driving content came to prominence amid a public outcry in Ireland after five teenagers were killed in a head-on crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in County Kildare last weekend.
The Garda commissioner, Justin Kelly, described the head-on collision between the two cars as “horrific” and said “in some cases” vehicles were being driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes. TikTok declined an invitation to appear before an Irish parliamentary committee on media to discuss videos, citing the ongoing police investigation, according to Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ,
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Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning to take questions on the fatal A66 crash.
Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak died when their Volkswagen Passat, believed to be using cloned plates, collided with a marked armed response vehicle early on Saturday near Middlesbrough.
Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, who had been driving in the correct direction, were killed in the collision. They have been hailed as heroes by their families.
It has been reported that Saddington was involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos before the fatal crash took place – although this has not been confirmed by police. Storey acknowledged the reports about the TikTok videos, but urged people to avoid speculation. He said:
Without being able to say whether that was anything like involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100% focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.
And for somebody to be filming themselves or doing anything like that is absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that. And it is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous.
Social media firms told to take down dangerous driving content in wake of fatal A66 crash
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The government has told social media companies to take down content showing people driving the wrong way down roads following a fatal crash over the weekend.
Two police officers were among seven people killed when a car travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into a force vehicle on the A66 near Middlesbrough.
There have been reports that at least one of the young men who died in the collision early on Saturday had been involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos.
Asked about these reports this morning, the defence minister, Luke Pollard, said social media platforms must remove content glorifying dangerous driving or else the government will use powers under the Online Safety Act to compel them to take the videos down. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, Pollard said:
We’ve communicated to those social media platforms that have been hosting content that celebrates this type of dangerous behaviour on our roads to take down that content.
I think we all need to give the police time, but there’s also things we can be doing in the meantime to make sure that the internet is a safer place for everyone, that doesn’t celebrate and load views and therefore financial incentives on people to generate such awful content. I want to see social media companies step up.
It’s one of the reasons they’ve argued against some of the regulations, saying they can police themselves. Well this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate it. Remove the content that celebrates dangerous behaviour on our roads.
The issue of lax social media regulation of dangerous driving content came to prominence amid a public outcry in Ireland after five teenagers were killed in a head-on crash involving a car driving in the wrong direction on a motorway in County Kildare last weekend.
The Garda commissioner, Justin Kelly, described the head-on collision between the two cars as “horrific” and said “in some cases” vehicles were being driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes. TikTok declined an invitation to appear before an Irish parliamentary committee on media to discuss videos, citing the ongoing police investigation, according to Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ,
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