The scene of the A66 crash. Concerns videos on social media platforms showing intentionally dangerous driving. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA View image in fullscreen The scene of the A66 crash. Concerns videos on social media platforms showing intentionally dangerous driving. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Social media No 10 backs ‘tough action’ if social platforms fail to remove dangerous driving posts after A66 crash Downing Street condemns ‘utterly disgraceful’ clips and says sites are legally obliged to take them down
Prefer the Guardian on Google The government has given its full backing to Ofcom to take “tough action” against social media platforms that fail to remove videos that depict dangerous driving after a crash that killed seven people near Middlesbrough.
The collision in the early hours of Saturday , in which PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough died, occurred when a Volkswagen Passat carrying five people aged between 23 and 17 crashed head-on with a marked armed response vehicle while driving the wrong way on the A66.
The five people in the Passat – Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, and Jacob Matusiak, 23 – were also pronounced dead at the scene.
The Passat was being pursued by police, who began following it after receiving intelligence of “multiple incidents” related to a vehicle matching its description. Police chased the car for seven minutes before it started to drive against the flow of traffic on the A66, at which point officers aborted the pursuit and remained on the correct side of the carriageway.
The car, which is believed to have had cloned plates, then collided with Blades and Clough’s vehicle about 10 seconds later.
Read more Concerns have been raised about a link between the incident and videos that appear on social media platforms showing intentionally dangerous driving such as travelling the wrong way up a road, filmed by the occupants of the cars and posted online.
A No 10 spokesperson said Ofcom would have the government’s “full backing to take tough action” in its attempts to remove such videos from platforms such as TikTok, where there are a growing number of posts by people who have filmed themselves driving dangerously.
They said: “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 is clear that it should be removed in line with their legal obligations.”
Andy Burnham criticised people who post such content. . The prime minister told reporters during a visit to Kyiv on Monday that “anybody who glorifies dangerous driving is doing something that’s truly reprehensible”.
The defence minister Luke Pollard urged social media platforms to “step up” and remove posts that promote or encourage dangerous driving, which have become prevalent.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Pollard said his department had “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 wan…