UK Demands Platforms Remove Dangerous Driving Posts After 7 Deaths
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 25
UK Demands Platforms Remove Dangerous Driving Posts After 7 Deaths
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 25
Summary
Lisa Nandy sought assurances from major platforms and Ofcom that dangerous-driving posts are proactively removed and offending accounts shut down after seven people died in Teesside.
The push follows a wrong-way A66 crash after a police chase that killed two officers and five men aged 17 to 23, amid concern social media clout and possible payouts fuel the trend.
Researchers said hashtags such as #fullsend, #gapping and #swimming help spread videos of illegal high-speed driving, with some accounts drawing more than 1 million followers and millions of views.
TikTok, Meta and YouTube say their rules ban harmful or imitable risky-driving content, but such clips remained easy to find; Google removed one flagged YouTube channel after the report.
The case exposes a gap in the 2023 Online Safety Act: dangerous driving is not explicitly illegal content, though it may qualify as harmful-to-children challenge material.