TikTok says people ultimately responsible for crimes, as tech firms face TDs in wake of M9 crash

TIKTOK WILL TELL a committee today that the “responsibility for an act of criminality ultimately rests with the individual who chooses to commit it”.

“That does not however diminish the responsibility we have as a platform to ensure we are doing everything we can to prevent our services being used to promote or facilitate that behaviour,” the social media giant will say.

It will also state that the “priority is to prevent dangerous behaviour content from making its way onto our platform in the first place.”

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, TikTok, and YouTube owner Google will appear before the Oireachtas media committee today to discuss how their role that their platforms play in displaying content that shows, and in some cases glorifies, irresponsible or illegal activity.

The meeting comes after five teenagers were killed after driving a car the wrong way down the M9, seriously injuring three sisters and their seven-year-old nephew.

Content showing dangerous behaviour, including wrong-way driving and gardaí chases, has gained traction on social media platforms recently.

TikTok has banned the account of at least one of the teenage boys who died in the fatal crash, and The Journal has reported on numerous other accounts on the site that show these activities.

TikTok had previously declined the invitation to attend the committee meeting, citing the ongoing inquiries by An Garda Síochána and Coimisiún na Meán. The company had offered a private briefing to the committee instead.

However, the social media giant subsequently confirmed that it would attend the meeting after the invitation was issued again by media committee chair and Labour TD Alan Kelly.

In the committee meeting today, TikTok will also say that “what matters is how [their policies] operate in practice and how [they] strengthen them”.

Their role also involves aiding with the deterrence of dangerous and criminal behaviour, they will say, which involves supporting An Garda Síochána, and addressing underlying causes which requires a “broader cross-societal response”.

They “proactively” identify content that violates their policies upon upload – not just after content has been reported as illegal – using “technology and human expertise”, they will say.

The vast majority (99.6%) of videos were removed before any user reported them, according to TikTok, and 83.4% of those were removed before any views. 89.9% were removed within 24 hours of publication.

Meta is expected to say that they do not allow the posting of “high-risk viral challenges”, and that they “prohibit people from promoting, advocating for, or encouraging participation in them”.

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They will also say that they are now treating driving against incoming traffic as a “prohibited high-risk viral challenge”, and will remove content accordingly. 

Their policies prohibit users from doing or sharing anything that is unlawful or which violates their standards, they will say, adding that their policies are “calibrated to the risk” of content that encourages dangerous behaviour.

“Where a behaviour is likely to cause life-threatening injury and risks spreading as a challenge, we remove it; where content depicts dangerous driving without meeting that threshold, we restrict its visibility to users aged 18 and over,” they will say.

The company uses automated detection, including hash-matching technologies that identify similar images, as well as keyword- and hashtag-based detection for illegal or inappropriate content.

Google will say that content depicting dangerous driving, or any activity that poses “imminent risk of physical injury or death”, is strictly prohibited.

Videos on YouTube use “machine learning classifiers to rapidly and proactively detect and remove violative content”. Livestreamers are verified, and under 16s can only livestream if an adult is present.

The site also actively monitors online trends, to be able to “proactively update our detection systems against these emerging threats”.

In the first quarter of 2026, over 98.5% of the videos removed from YouTube were first detected by automated systems.

What are the laws?

Under the European legal framework platforms are not liable for illegal content on their services, as long as they act promptly to remove it as soon as they become aware of it. However, platforms cannot be required to monitor all content posted to check if it is illegal, according to media regulator Coimisiún na Meán.

However, platforms must have an easy way for people to report content, and the largest platforms must actively risk assess and mitigate risks arising from how they are designed and used.

Under the Online Safety Code, video-sharing platforms must restrict content that encourages behaviours detrimental to the health or safety of children, including dangerous challenges.

If a platform fails to do so, large fines can be imposed.

The EU Digital Services Act obliges platforms to adhere to and enforce their own terms and conditions. Where these terms prohibit content depicting criminality or promoting dangerous activities, platforms must remove that content.

Recently, the EU Commission published a proposal titled the “EU Kids Act”, which will introduce age restrictions for social media and new obligations on platforms to implement safety by design.

The Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2026 also includes a new power for Coimisiún na Meán to issue notices to a platform seeking information about compliance.