TikTok declines to attend public hearing of Media committee

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

TikTok has declined to publicly appear before an Oireachtas committee probing online videos of dangerous driving, with the social media giant instead offering a private briefing to lawmakers.

There has been renewed focus on the matter after five teenagers were killed in a horror crash on Sunday in Co Kildare.

The teenagers died after the car they were travelling in was driven the wrong way down the M9 and was involved in a head-on collision with another car.

They have been named locally as Joe Carthy, Jack Kennedy, Alex McCarthy, Jeremy O’Brien and Kamil Pustkowski.

A child and three women from the same family, who were in the other car, are being treated for serious injuries in hospital.

TikTok had been invited to appear before the Oireachtas Media committee on September 23th to address issues on how it deals with content that “glorifies illegal activity” but has declined the opportunity.

Media regulator Coimisiún na Meán has also 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.

TikTok said it would not be “possible” to appear before the committee given probes into the matter by gardaí and the regulator. It also said it would not be “appropriate” for it to be the sole video-sharing company to be called in front of the committee when similar content appears on other social media platforms.

The company says it has removed all the flagged content and banned accounts that 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 that encourages unsafe behaviour including risky driving.

TikTok said it had offered a “private briefing” to members of the Committee.

Earlier, Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said children “come first” over tax revenues from social media giants.

Mr Burke said “very extreme” content has “been allowed to sit there for protracted periods of time”, adding that this was “not good enough” at a time when social media companies were “shedding staff”.

Mr Burke said: “I’ve been very clear, irrespective of what tax revenue comes in from any social media company, our children are first.”

“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.

“You see a lot of these social media companies shedding staff, shedding numbers, and yet this content seems to be ever growing that’s appearing on them.

“And 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.”

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 a prohibition of content promoting criminal or harmful activities such as high-risk viral challenges.

Snap has also been contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, a fundraiser for the four members of the same family who were seriously injured had raised almost €600,000 by 2.30pm on Thursday.