A UK defence minister, Luke Pollard, has urged social media companies to remove content that glorifies dangerous driving, following a crash on the A66 in Middlesbrough that killed seven people, including two police officers. The government says it will use powers under the Online Safety Act to force platforms to take down such videos if they fail to act voluntarily, amid growing concern that footage of stunts like driving the wrong way down carriageways is being filmed and shared online for views.

The crash occurred in the early hours of Saturday when a Volkswagen Passat carrying five people aged between 17 and 23, which police had been pursuing after reports of "multiple incidents", began driving the wrong way on the A66 and collided head-on with a marked armed response vehicle, killing PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough along with all five car occupants. Ofcom said platforms are already obliged to minimise children's exposure to content promoting dangerous stunts, and confirmed TikTok is under investigation over its age-checking safeguards; TikTok has denied its content endangers children. The incident follows a similar wrong-way motorway crash in County Kildare, Ireland, less than a week earlier, in which five teenagers died.