OPINION: ​TikTok should be held accountable for not acting sooner on dangerous driving content

​TikTok should be held accountable for not acting sooner on dangerous driving content, writes The Nationalist. 

In the aftermath of the recent M9 crash, which claimed the lives of five teenagers and left a family seriously injured, serious questions must be asked about the role social media plays in helping spread videos of dangerous driving.

Video sharing platform TikTok is at the centre of questions this week after the recent spate of reckless driving accidents that were filmed for social media.

Many, including the Irish Government, are wondering how these videos were allowed gather such attention and become a ‘trend’, given that they are clearly violating the app’s own guidelines.

The recent dangerous trend has led to multiple deaths of youths in the UK and Ireland and has in turn made many question how efficient TikTok’s content monitoring systems are.

TikTok recently declines to speak before the Oireachtas committee, and instead offered to meet the government privately, gathering more criticism again.

What the Irish Government must now do is ensure in the future TikTok must act faster to identify and remove content that glorifies dangerous driving and also show that the app’s algorithms are not amplifying the reach and popularity of this dangerous content.

Coimisiún na Meán is now investigating whether TikTok tackle’s dangerous content properly and monitors it effectively.

If found to be in breach of their obligations, action must be taken before another tragedy occurs in the name of a social media trend.

It is time for social media companies to be held accountable for the illegal content they allow to spread on their platforms, dangerous content that should have been monitored and removed in the first place.