Defence Minister Luke Pollard has called on social media companies to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving, after a viral trend showing people going the wrong way down roads. Pollard told BBC Breakfast on Monday: "Social media companies could take that down today, adjust their algorithms so it's not celebrated." Two police officers died when a car going the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into their vehicle near Middlesbrough on Saturday. The 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, shared videos appearing to show dangerous driving, which have since been removed. 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." 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.
The BBC has also contacted Meta and 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.
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