Figure caption, Watch: Glorifying dangerous driving is "unacceptable", prime minister says
The government has urged social media companies to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham branded sharing them "truly reprehensible".
Earlier Defence Minister Luke Pollard told BBC Breakfast that "social media companies could take the content down easily and adjust their algorithms to stop it being distributed".
Two police officers died when a car going the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into their vehicle near Middlesbrough on Saturday. Five passengers in the other car were also killed.
A TikTok account believed to belong to one of the five passengers, 18-year-old Makai Saddington, previously shared videos appearing to show dangerous driving, which have since been removed.
But Cleveland Police said "there is no evidence to indicate that filming of the activities that took place on Friday night and Saturday morning has taken place for the purposes of TikTok".
Image source, Cleveland Police Image caption, PC Tom Clough (left) and PC Matthew Blades were killed in a crash when a car travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into their vehicle on Saturday
Pollard said the government had "already taken steps" to tell social media companies to take down such content.
He added: "They know exactly what content is on their site, they know how their algorithm works.
"They also know that people post content to get views and the more views you get, sometimes you get money for it, so it's a financial incentive to post outrageous content that gets more people watching it."
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Burnham said the people who share footage glorifying dangerous driving are "doing something that's truly reprehensible".
A Downing Street spokeswoman said "the glorification of dangerous driving for clips and entertainment is utterly disgraceful".
She added that the culture secretary has been clear that footage should be removed by social media platforms "in line with their legal obligations", and that Ofcom has the government's "full backing to take action" against those that fail in their duties.
Figure caption, Watch: Content celebrating dangerous driving "should not be online", says UK defence minister
Video content featuring illegal activity is not necessarily illegal itself - according to the Online Safety Act - it is up to the social network to decide whether flagged content is illegal and act accordingly.
TikTok said its policies prohibit content that could cause significant physical harm, including dangerous driving.
It added that it is actively removing videos and accounts that break its rules, including the account believed to belong to Saddington.
The company said between January and March 2026, 99.8% of the content removed for violating those policies it took down proactively.
While TikTok is taking some videos down, it is not necessarily because it has deemed them to be illegal - it may only be because they breach the firm's own terms and conditions.
There are specific exceptions which are set out in the Online Safety Act, but they can be difficult to interpret.
For example, content showing someone being killed is not necessarily illegal unless it is being shared by a terrorist group, and/or accessible to children.
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