PM condemns sharing dangerous driving videos as 'truly reprehensible'

Sharing dangerous driving videos is 'truly reprehensible', PM says

A young woman holding her iPhone while showing the TikTok app.

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".

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.

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.