Social media companies unable to say how many times dangerous videos watched

Social media companies have been criticised for failing to provide a committee with a figure for how many times videos of wrong-way driving were watched on its platform.The hosting of dangerous content on social media platforms has come under increased scrutiny following multiple high-profile crashes involving wrong-way driving in recent months.In one incident, five teenagers died when the car they were travelling in was driven the wrong way down the M9 in Co Kildare and hit another vehicle.A child and three women from the same family were seriously injured in the other car.Tech giants TikTok, Google, and Meta appeared before the Oireachtas Media committee on Wednesday to outline how they respond to online content promoting criminal activity.Content featuring the theft of cars, joyriding, speeding and wrong-way driving have featured on social media platforms.The scene of the fatal M9 crash (Niall Carson/PA)PA WireRyan Meade, Google’s government affairs and public policy manager, said there had been less than 10 Irish-specific dangerous driving YouTube videos and less than 10 channels removed in the period from the start of July to the end of August.Dualta Ó Broin, the head of public policy in Ireland for Facebook and Instagram operator Meta, said it had removed two items of Ireland-originated video of wrong-way driving between December 1 and September 5, while eight others were age gated.He added that 127 items of Ireland-originated related “viral challenge” content about wrong-way driving had been removed, and three were age restricted to over-18s.However, TikTok was unable to provide a specific figure for dangerous driving videos in Ireland or how many times they had been viewed.The company’s global head of policy for trust and safety said there had been 42,000 pieces of content featuring dangerous activity or challenges in the first half of the year.Dualta O Broin said Meta had removed two videos of wrong-way driving originated in Ireland (Niall Carson/PA)PA ArchiveZachary Hecht said this covered a broad range of activity beyond just wrong-way driving including dangerous use of tools and risky behaviour at height.He said TikTok is “constantly working” to improve its systems but said no moderation process is 100% effective, adding that 400,000 videos were uploaded every day.TikTok said 99.6% of the videos of dangerous activity were removed proactively before any user reported them, with 83.4% before they had any views and almost 90% within 24 hours.Read MoreUnder questioning from Fianna Fáíl senator Alison Comyn, Mr Hecht was unable to say how many times those 42,000 videos had been watched.Committee chairman and Labour TD Alan Kelly told TikTok it was “deeply concerning” it was appearing without “quantitative figures” on how many times videos that were found to violate its policies had been watched before they were removed.All three of the companies committed to providing further figures to the committee.Alan Kelly said the lack of accurate viewing figures was ‘deeply concerning’ (Niall Carson/PA)PA ArchiveMr Kelly said he had also seen “loads” of videos of dangerous content and had been shown some by his 16-year-old daughter. He said TikTok’s two billion euro yearly budget on online safety was not being spent “very well”.He added that there was a “watershed” moment where Ireland could no longer continue in the same way as before.“We’re going to have to absolutely, as a country, stand up for our people.”Later offered another opportunity to provide the data, Susan Moss, TikTok’s head of public policy in Ireland, did not do so and said the company did not want to give an inaccurate figure.Fianna Fáil TD Peter “Chap” Cleere said he had spoken to dozens of people “who were afraid for their lives” to use motorways following incidents of wrong-way driving earlier this year.Mr Hecht said that since the M9 crash it had identified 1,600 instances of content related to the broader category of vehicular theft and highly risky driving in the last month, noting that less than 2% had “any indication” of wrong-way driving – which would be less than 32 videos.Mr Cleere contended he had personally seen “way more than 30 videos” depicting wrong-way driving and asked if such content was still available on the platform.Mr Hecht said: “One of the things that I want to note is that the depiction of wrong-way driving is not absolutely going to be removed when it’s done to raise awareness of the issue.”The offices of Coimisiún na Meán (Niall Carson/PA)PA ArchiveIreland’s media regulator also faced questioning at the committee.Mr Cleere asked Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) executive chairman Jeremy Godfrey if he had confidence the social media companies were doing everything they could to tackle dangerous material.Mr Godfrey said a regulator would never say whether or not they were were happy with companies, adding it had to follow legal processes in assessing whether the tech giants were complying with their obligations.Mr Cleere said it was “very worrying” that the Commission was “failing to say you’re 100% confident” the companies were doing everything they needed to do to address dangerous content.Mr Godfrey said CnaM has opened six of its own investigations into potential breaches of online safety rules by large tech companies, and is collaborating with the European Commission on another four.Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne questioned whether in “seriousness” this “constitutes taking action” as she characterised the Commission as a “hands-off regulator”.Mr Godfrey said the CnaM was “independent and fearless” in taking on non-compliance.This was dismissed by Ms Byrne, who said the regulator was “slow to act” on other matters including non-consensual sexual imagery generated by artificial intelligence tools such as Grok.Fine Gael senator Evanne Ní Chuillinn asked the regulator what it was most hamstrung by.Mr Godfrey said there was a “very litigious environment” where every investigation it has opened was met with an immediate judicial review.However, he said it was “not afraid of litigation”.Meanwhile, Mr Kelly also said he “didn’t appreciate the manner in which” X, formerly Twitter, communicated it would not appear before the hearing.