TikTok grilled by Irish committee for refusing to say how many times deadly driving videos were watched

From the Newshound archive · first published 23 September 2026.

Zachary Hecht, TikTok's global head of safety, told the Oireachtas Media Committee that the platform has no way of knowing how many times Irish users viewed wrong-way driving videos — testimony that came just weeks after five teenage boys died in the M9 crash. Committee chair Alan Kelly TD branded the inability to supply even basic statistics "not professional", while senator Sinéad Gibney told TikTok executives: "I believe you guys are just off the hook." The hearing was prompted by the deaths of five boys on August 16 after their car travelled the wrong way along the M9 in Co Kildare and struck an oncoming vehicle head-on, seriously injuring a child and three sisters.

Since the M9 crash, TikTok says it identified 1,600 videos linked to dangerous driving, of which fewer than 30 depicted wrong-way driving — a figure a Fianna Fáil TD flatly disputed.

Meta told the committee it had removed just two items of Ireland-originated wrong-way driving video since December, while Google said fewer than 10 Irish dangerous driving YouTube channels were taken down since July.

X was invited to appear before the committee but declined, with Kelly calling the refusal 'very disappointing' and 'not a good sign'.