Minister tells social media firms to take down dangerous driving content in wake of fatal A66 crash in Middlesborough – UK politics live

In other news, No 10 has described the glorification of dangerous driving “for clips and entertainment” as “utterly disgraceful” after a viral trend showing young people going the wrong way down roads renewed scrutiny of social media regulation following a fatal crash near Middlesbrough on Saturday.

TikTok is among the social media firms that have been urged to remove wrong-way driving videos from its platforms after two police officers and five others were killed in a crash on the A66, as we mentioned in the opening post .

A Downing Street spokesperson said this afternoon:

double quotation mark The glorification of dangerous driving for clips and entertainment is utterly disgraceful and that is why we have raised the issue of this appalling content with social media companies since the tragedy, and the secretary of state for culture, media and sport (Lisa Nandy) is clear that it should be removed in line with their legal obligations.

She added that Ofcom has the government’s “full backing to take tough action” against platforms which fail in their legal duties. TikTok is already under investigation by the regulatory body due to worries about the effectiveness of its age-checking software.

TikTok has denied that its content puts children at risk, claiming its policies strictly prohibit content that could cause significant physical harm, including dangerous driving, and said that it is removing any videos and accounts that break its rules.