Arabic version: الحكومة تضغط على المنصات بسبب مقاطع القيادة الخطرة

According to BBC News, the government has urged social media companies to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving after Prime Minister Andy Burnham called sharing such footage “truly reprehensible”. A Downing Street spokeswoman said glorifying dangerous driving for clips and entertainment was “utterly disgraceful”, while the culture secretary had said platforms should remove footage in line with their legal obligations.

The calls followed a crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough on Saturday in which two police officers and five occupants of a Volkswagen Passat died. PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades, 37, were killed when the Passat, which officers had been pursuing until seconds before, collided with their marked armed response car. Cleveland Police said there was no evidence filming on Friday night and Saturday morning had taken place for TikTok.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard said social media companies could remove the content easily and adjust their algorithms to stop it being distributed. He said platforms know what content is on their sites and how their algorithms work, adding that posts seeking views can create a financial incentive for outrageous content. Pollard said the government would use powers in the Online Safety Act to compel platforms to remove any content that remained online.

TikTok said its policies prohibit content that could cause significant physical harm, including dangerous driving, and that it was actively removing videos and accounts that breached its rules. It said 99.8% of content removed for violating those policies between January and March 2026 was taken down proactively. Meta said it prohibits posts encouraging high-risk challenges, including driving against traffic, and removes such content once it is made aware of it. Ofcom said platforms must minimise children’s exposure to violent material and content promoting dangerous challenges.