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.

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.”