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TIKTOK WILL NOT be attending an Oireachtas committee meeting to discuss the role of their social media videos in a fatal crash involving a car driving the wrong way on Sunday.

The social media giant was asked to a media committee meeting next month to answer questions about the safeguards it has in place to protect users from dangerous and harmful content.

Five teenagers in a car driving the wrong way down the M9 were killed when their car hit a family driving to Dublin airport. Three women and a seven-year-old boy are still in hospital from their injuries.

The incident has prompted questions about the role of social media in glorifying dangerous and illegal behaviour, as a trend has emerged on social media, where accounts share videos and images of vehicles, garda pursuits, and reckless driving, including driving the wrong way down motorways.

The garda commissioner Justin Kelly has condemned such “reckless behaviour”, saying it is often done for “social media likes”.

On Wednesday, Labour TD and media committee chair Alan Kelly wrote to TikTok requesting their attendance at a meeting to discuss what he described as “content that glorifies irresponsible or illegal activity”.

However, today, TikTok said that they would not be attending the meeting due to the ongoing inquires by An Garda Síochána and Coimisiún na Meán.

In a letter penned by TikTok’s head of public policy Susan Moss, they said that this meant “it would not be possible to appear before the committee in public session until this process is completed.”

“The same issues arise in relation to other social media platforms and messaging services where instances of the content complained of is present,” the statement continued.

However, those platforms have not been invited to appear before the committee at this time.

“TikTok does not consider it appropriate to be the sole representative of the video sharing industry in such circumstances.”

The tech company told The Journal that it had offered a private briefing to the committee instead.

Kelly said that this development was a “slap in the face to the Irish public”.

“The Committee invited TikTok for a very clear reason. We want to understand the processes currently in place to protect users, particularly younger users, from content that glorifies dangerous, reckless or illegal behaviour.

“TikTok is one of the most influential social media platforms in Ireland and is the platform of choice for many young people. With that influence comes an enormous responsibility.”

Kelly said that the ongoing garda investigation being used as a reason to not attend is a “red herring”, and said he had “no problem” if the company wished other social media companies to be there.

Kelly is calling on TikTok to accept the invitation, and is also calling on Coimisiún na Meán to encourage them to do so.

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke has commented on the issue of “very extreme” content which has “been allowed to sit there for protracted periods of time”.

“It is so important to me that we handle this robustly. We give the social media company the opportunity, obviously, to appear before the Oireachtas, but critically they have in their purview, in their power, to take down these videos,” he said.

“You see a lot of these social media companies shedding staff, shedding numbers, and yet this content seems to be ever-growing.

“Anecdotal evidence seems to be that it’s very extreme and it’s been allowed to sit there for protracted periods of time to gain likes and gain interactions from other peers in the community, and frankly, that’s not good enough and we need to take action.”

Media regulator Coimisiún na Meán has sought a “full account” of how TikTok is dealing with reports of illegal or harmful content on its platform, with the authority adding it is in “close contact” with An Garda Síochána.

The video-sharing platform says it has removed all the flagged content and banned accounts which violate its policies against criminal behaviour.

It also said it removes content that glorifies violence and promotes crime that could harm others, while limiting the spread of material which encourages unsafe behaviour, including risky driving.

Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, has policies to restrict users under 18 from seeing imagery depicting real-life dangerous driving likely to cause injury, as well as prohibition of content promoting criminal or harmful activities such as high-risk viral challenges.

Snap has also been contacted for comment.

Additional reporting by PA

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