There has been a call for greater regulation and enforcement of TikTok following two incidents of the so-called “wrong-way” driving trend.
There has been a call for greater regulation and enforcement of TikTok following two incidents of the so-called “wrong-way” driving trend (Image source: © 123rf
123rf)
The one incident in Ireland took place on 16 August and involved a group of young males in a BMW who had broken into homes and cars. The BMW was driving the wrong way down the M9 when it crashed into a Hyundai, injuring three sisters and the one’s seven-year-old son. They had been on their way to Dublin airport for a family wedding in the UK.
This was the second such incident in Ireland. Earlier in the month, nine people were hurt when eight youths hit a car while driving the wrong way on Dublin's main ring road.
The more recent incident occurred over the weekend in the UK, after a vehicle travelling on the wrong side of the street collided with a marked police car. Two police officers and five young people were killed.
A now-deleted TikTok account believed to belong to one of the teenagers who died in the crash includes a video, posted in March 2025, of him and four other young people involved in what appears to be a police car chase, according to the BBC.
“Wrong-way” driving trend
While authorities are probing the exact causes of the latest crashes, this viral challenge on social media seems to be a trend - dubbed “wrong-way” driving videos, and then posting them online - for teenagers.
The true extent of the social media trend remains unclear, but Irish broadcaster RTÉ said Monday that 62 incidents of people driving the wrong way down motorways have been recorded so far this year in Ireland, citing the body which oversees Ireland’s roads and public transport networks, 32% more than in the same period last year.
As a result, tech companies have come under the spotlight amid reports of viral footage circulating online depicting risky driving, with local officials warning that “likes” on social media are being prioritised over the safety of innocent people.
Following the two incidents, the British government has called on social media companies to remove videos which celebrate dangerous driving.
British Defence Minister Luke Pollard called on social media firms to remove content which shows risky driving, including cars travelling “down the wrong side of the roads”.
“There’s lots of content online on social media platforms of people celebrating dangerous driving, celebrating driving inappropriately on our roads, down the wrong side of the roads, behaving incredibly badly,” Pollard told the BBC.
“We’ve already spoken to those companies as a government, telling them that we’ll use the powers in the Online Safety Act” to ensure dangerous content is taken down, Pollard said, referring to legislation in the UK which mandates tech companies to protect users from illegal and harmful content.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham later said people who share footage glorifying dangerous driving are “doing something truly reprehensible.”
Other politicians have demanded tougher penalties for dangerous driving, such as classifying driving on the wrong side of a motorway as attempted murder.
Removal of content
In response to the latest crash, social media giant TikTok said it was closely monitoring any online content related to the incident and is removing videos and accounts that break the company’s rules.
TikTok said it removes content which glorifies violence or promotes crimes using a range of techniques, including human moderation, detection technologies and user reporting.
Between January and March of this year, the company said that of the content it removed for violating its policies on violent and criminal behaviour, 99.1% was taken down before it was reported to them.
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.
In the UK, according to the Online Safety Act, video content featuring illegal activity is not necessarily illegal itself - it is up to the social network to decide whether flagged content is illegal and act accordingly.
Held to account
Following the incident in Ireland, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, said that social media companies need to be held to account on the matter.
"We need to tackle the growing problem of the glorification of these types of actions on social media.
"Social media companies need to be held to account for allowing these types of videos to remain on pages for prolonged periods of time.
"This is a broken system that needs to be addressed.
"Government need to take very seriously the ability of people to post what are grossly irresponsible, illegal actions on social media and for them to remain on social media pages for a prolonged period of time.
"It is invariably and undoubtedly at this stage leading to copycat type of actions and in some instances, as we've seen over the weekend, with absolutely devastating consequences."
Thinking about likes
The Guardian quotes Mary Aiken, a professor of forensic cyberpsychology at the University of East London, on the matter.
She says seeking excitement and admiration from peers through such behaviour was not new, but social media had escalated and amplified the phenomenon.
“I would describe it as hybrid behaviour. While driving the car, they’re simultaneously filming and capturing content for posting later or live streaming.
“They have one foot in the real world and one foot in cyberspace.”
Cyberspace is psychologically immersive and could amplify a predisposition to taking risks and ignoring consequences. They’re thinking about the likes, they’re thinking about kudos.”
