- Published
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".
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.
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.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said it prohibits posts encouraging participation in high-risk challenges, including driving against traffic, and takes down such content once made aware.
It said it also restrict users under 18 from seeing content not suitable to them, such as posts depicting any sort of reckless driving.
The BBC has also contacted X for comment.
On Saturday, PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades, 37, died when a Volkswagen Passat, which officers had been pursuing until seconds before, collided with their marked armed response car on the A66 near Middlesbrough.
All five of the Passat's occupants - Saddington, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17 - also died.
A video posted on the TikTok account believed to belong to Saddington in March 2025 showed him and four other young people involved in what appears to be a police pursuit. The video has since been deleted.
BBC Verify analysed the 94 second-long clip, which showed the car driving on footpaths and parkland in Ormesby, Middlesbrough, with Saddington a rear-seat passenger.
Another video posted by the same account, also since deleted, appears to show a joyride where a passenger is smoking, with the speedometer showing 100mph.
Then, later in the video, a different car is set on fire. The passengers in this video are not identifiable.
Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey said: "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% focused on the road when they're behind the wheel of a vehicle."
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that someone filming themselves or others driving dangerously is "absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that".
"It is a worrying situation if that's becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous", he added.
Earlier this month, five teenagers were killed in a head-on collision in County Kildare, Ireland, after driving the wrong way down a motorway.
They hit a car which was believed to be carrying a family heading to the airport for a holiday. As of Friday, three women and a seven-year-old boy were still in hospital where they were being treated for serious injuries.
At the time, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly called it "irresponsible and dangerous driving".
He said: "What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves."
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live, Pollard said he wanted to see social media companies "step up".
He added: "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."
The minister said the government will use powers in the Online Safety Act to compel platforms to take down any content that remains online.
A spokesperson for regulator Ofcom said under the act platforms "must minimise children's exposure to violent material and content promoting dangerous challenges".
They added that in July, it launched an investigation "into TikTok's compliance with its child safety duties, and we've shown we'll take action if evidence suggests companies are falling short."
Related topics
- Published16 hours ago
- Published1 day ago
- Published2 days ago
Facts Only
Two police officers and five passengers in a car died in a collision on the A66 near Middlesbrough on Saturday.
The vehicle involved was a Volkswagen Passat traveling the wrong way down a dual carriageway.
The deceased passengers were Makai Saddington (18), Michael Robert Cahill (23), Jacob Matusiak (23), Theo Rae (17), and Cole Robert Worthy (17).
A TikTok account associated with Makai Saddington previously posted videos of alleged police pursuits and a vehicle traveling at 100mph.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Defence Minister Luke Pollard have called for social media companies to remove content celebrating dangerous driving.
TikTok states that 99.8% of content violating its policies was removed proactively between January and March 2026.
Meta prohibits posts encouraging high-risk challenges, including driving against traffic.
The Online Safety Act governs the removal of illegal content, with Ofcom acting as the regulator.
In County Kildare, Ireland, five teenagers died recently after driving the wrong way down a motorway.
Cleveland Police stated there is no evidence that the specific activities leading to the Saturday crash were filmed for TikTok.
Executive Summary
A fatal collision near Middlesbrough resulted in the deaths of two police officers—PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades—and five occupants of a Volkswagen Passat, including 18-year-old Makai Saddington. The incident occurred when the Passat traveled the wrong way down a dual carriageway on the A66. Following the crash, attention turned to social media content on an account linked to Saddington that appeared to glorify dangerous driving and police pursuits.
The UK government, led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Defence Minister Luke Pollard, has condemned the sharing of such content as "reprehensible" and "disgraceful." They are urging social media platforms to remove glorifications of illegal driving, citing financial incentives for creators to post outrageous content for views. While TikTok and Meta state their policies prohibit high-risk challenges and dangerous driving, the Online Safety Act creates complexities regarding what constitutes "illegal" content versus breaches of platform terms. Regulators like Ofcom are monitoring compliance, particularly concerning child safety, while police emphasize that filming while driving is inherently dangerous regardless of the platform.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is a tragedy-driven call for corporate accountability. It posits that social media algorithms create a perverse financial incentive for youth to engage in lethal behavior for "clout," necessitating stricter government oversight and platform enforcement to protect public safety.
The framing relies heavily on a specific sequence: a horrific accident is immediately linked to the digital footprint of a victim. While the police explicitly state there is no evidence the fatal crash itself was filmed for social media, the narrative maintains a tight proximity between the tragedy and the TikTok videos. This creates a powerful emotional bridge that suggests a causal link between the "culture of likes" and the physical deaths, regardless of the specific facts of the Saturday event.
Patterns detected: none
The root cause is a clash between the speed of digital attention economies and the rigidity of physical safety laws. This echoes historical moral panics regarding new media, but with a modern twist: the "incentive structure" (monetization of views) is a systemic driver rather than just individual rebellion. The implication is a shift toward greater state intervention in private platform moderation, moving from "terms of service" to "legal obligations." The benefit goes to the state's ability to regulate behavior; the cost is a potential expansion of surveillance and censorship of "harmful" but not strictly "illegal" content.
Bridge Questions:
1. If the police found no evidence that this specific crash was filmed, to what extent does the focus on social media distract from other root causes of reckless driving?
2. Where is the line between "harmful content" and "illegal content" in a way that doesn't grant regulators arbitrary power?
Counterstrike Scan: A coordinated campaign would use the deaths of officers to bypass debates on free speech and force through restrictive internet regulations. The content here is standard journalistic reporting of government reactions and does not match the pattern of a coordinated influence operation.