TikTok has identified over 1,600 videos on its platform showing dangerous driving, car theft, and related behaviour in Ireland since a fatal crash on the M9 motorway last month shocked the country.
Zachary Hecht, TikTok’s Global Head of Policy in Trust and Safety, revealed the figures as pressure mounts on the platform to take action against the growing trend of reckless driving content being shared online.
The M9 crash, which claimed lives and sparked widespread public outrage, brought renewed attention to videos circulating on social media that appear to glorify joyriding, handbrake turns, and other highly dangerous behaviour on Irish roads. Many of the clips are filmed from inside moving vehicles, often showing drivers losing control or evading gardai.
Since that crash, TikTok says it has been actively scanning for this type of content specific to Ireland and has flagged 1,600 videos that fall into the category of highly risky driving or vehicular theft. The company has not confirmed exactly how many of those videos were removed, but the sheer volume points to just how widespread the problem has become on the platform.
The figures have raised serious questions about whether social media companies are doing enough to stop dangerous content from spreading. Critics argue that these videos do not just document reckless behaviour, they actively encourage it. Young people watching clips of joyriding set to trending audio, racking up thousands of likes and shares, are being handed a roadmap for imitation.
Road safety campaigners in Ireland have been calling for tougher action for months. The M9 tragedy gave those calls a new urgency. Families of road crash victims have spoken publicly about the devastating impact these trends have on communities, particularly in areas where joyriding has become a persistent problem.
Gardai have also been dealing with an increase in vehicle thefts and dangerous driving incidents, some of which appear to be directly linked to social media trends. Stolen cars being driven at high speed through housing estates, filmed and uploaded for views, has become a pattern that law enforcement is struggling to keep pace with.
TikTok has faced intense scrutiny from Irish politicians and regulators over the issue. The platform has previously stated that content promoting dangerous driving violates its community guidelines and that it uses a combination of automated systems and human reviewers to detect and remove such videos. However, campaigners say the response has been too slow and that harmful content often stays up long enough to rack up significant views before being taken down.
Hecht’s appearance and the release of these figures suggest TikTok is attempting to demonstrate a more proactive approach in the wake of the M9 crash. Whether that translates into meaningful change on the ground remains to be seen.
Ireland’s road death toll has been a growing concern over the past two years, with figures trending in the wrong direction despite decades of progress on road safety. The role of social media in normalising dangerous driving is now firmly part of that conversation, and platforms like TikTok are under increasing pressure to prove they are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.