Britain's government has urged TikTok and other social media companies to remove viral videos that appear to "celebrate" dangerous driving, following a fatal collision that killed two police officers and five young men. The incident occurred when a car was driven the wrong way down a road in northeastern England and collided with the officers' vehicle.
Officers Matthew Blades and Tom Clough were killed in the crash on Saturday. The five individuals in the car—three males aged 17 and 18, and two men aged 23—were also pronounced dead at the scene. British media reports suggest that one of the deceased from the car may have previously posted videos of dangerous driving.
U.K. Defense Minister Luke Pollard stated that the government has instructed TikTok and similar platforms to "step up" and remove such "awful content." "We’ve communicated to those social media platforms that have been hosting content that celebrates this type of dangerous behavior on our roads to take down that content," Pollard told the BBC. He added that this is an opportunity for these platforms to demonstrate their self-policing capabilities.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham's office described the glorification of dangerous driving for entertainment clips as "utterly disgraceful." The office indicated that the U.K. media regulator has the government's full support to take decisive action against platforms that fail to meet their legal obligations.
TikTok did not provide a comment but stated that its policies prohibit content that could cause significant physical harm.
Authorities reported that the car involved in the fatal crash had a cloned license plate to evade detection. Separately, 12 individuals were arrested on Monday in connection with suspected criminal activities, including firearm possession, prior to the crash.
In a related incident, four people, including a child, sustained serious injuries in County Kildare, Ireland, last week when their car was hit by another vehicle traveling the wrong way on a highway. Five teenagers in the other vehicle died in that crash. Following the Irish incident, an Irish parliamentary committee invited TikTok to discuss its content moderation policies regarding illegal activity, but the company declined to attend.