Minister urges social media firms to remove posts glorifying dangerous driving after fatal crash

A British minister has called on social media companies to proactively remove content that glorifies dangerous driving, following a tragic collision that claimed seven lives. The incident occurred on the A66 when a Volkswagen Passat, traveling the wrong way, collided head-on with a police car.

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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.

Among the deceased were two police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who were in the marked armed response vehicle. The five occupants of the Passat, all between the ages of 17 and 23, also died at the scene. Police had been pursuing the Passat for seven minutes after receiving intelligence about multiple incidents involving the vehicle before the car entered the A66 against the flow of traffic. Officers aborted the pursuit at that point.

Concerns have surfaced regarding the potential link between the crash and videos circulating on social media platforms that appear to show intentionally dangerous driving, sometimes filmed by the occupants themselves. Defence minister Luke Pollard emphasized the need for social media platforms to "step up" and remove such content.

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I want to see social media companies step up.

"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," Pollard stated. He urged the companies to demonstrate their self-regulatory capabilities by removing the content, noting that the government possesses powers under the Online Safety Act to compel removal if necessary.

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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.

Pollard added that if platforms prevented their algorithms from promoting such content, which he believes they are aware of, the situation would improve. The incident has drawn attention to the role of social media in potentially encouraging risky behavior on the roads.

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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.