LONDON, Aug 24 (Bernama-PA Media/dpa) -- The United Kingdom (UK) government has urged TikTok to remove wrong-way driving videos after a deadly crash killed seven people early on Saturday, PA Media/dpa reported.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said on Monday that the government will compel platforms to take down dangerous wrong-way driving content, but said social media companies should act proactively to remove the videos.
Police officers Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38, were killed when a Volkswagen Passat – which had been pursued by police – was driven the wrong way along a dual carriageway in northeastern England and hit their marked armed response vehicle.
Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak were also pronounced dead at the scene in Teesside early on Saturday.
Court records show that Saddington was accused of assaulting a police officer and of causing racially aggravated alarm or distress in Middlesbrough on June 9.
He had appeared before Teesside Magistrates' Court on July 17 charged with the offences and was awaiting trial.
It has also been reported that Saddington was involved in filming dangerous driving in TikTok videos before the fatal crash took place.
Pollard told broadcaster BBC: “We’ve 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.”
He added: “I want to see social media companies step up.
“It’s one of the reasons they’ve argued against some of the regulations, saying they can police themselves. Well, this is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate it. Remove the content that celebrates dangerous behaviour on our roads.
“While that content is online, the government will be using the powers in the Online Safety Act to compel the platforms to take it down.
“But if the social media platforms were to regulate themselves and remove it in the first place, not allow their algorithm to share this type of content, because they know exactly what type of content that algorithm is designed to share, then I think we’d be in a better place.”
Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey acknowledged the reports about the TikTok videos, but urged people to avoid speculation.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Without being able to say whether that was anything like involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100 per cent focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.
“And for somebody to be filming themselves or doing anything like that is absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that.
“And it is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous.”
Cleveland Police launched a chase on Saturday after receiving intelligence relating to “numerous incidents” linked to a Passat, which activated an automatic number-plate recognition camera and is believed to have been using cloned plates, investigating watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct said.
An armed response vehicle pursued for just under seven minutes before the car drove on to the A66 in South Bank against the flow of traffic.
Police aborted the chase and continued to travel on the correct side of the carriageway.
The Passat crashed into Pc Blades and Pc Clough’s vehicle around 10 seconds after the chase ended.
-- BERNAMA-PA MEDIA/dpa