New York state lawmakers say subway surfing is still a click away on social media

More than two dozen state lawmakers say in a new letter that major social media companies are allowing subway surfing content to persist on their platforms, days after a 14-year-old died attempting to ride atop an F train in Brooklyn.

In the letter, state senators and assemblymembers wrote that the leaders of Instagram and Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok on Friday had failed to live up to previous pledges to remove subway surfing content.

“We are aware of public statements by your companies agreeing to restrict and remove ‘subway surfing’ content," the letter notes. "However, this content continues to proliferate on your platforms."

Last week, teenager Alam Reyes died riding atop an F train in Midwood. Witnesses said Reyes fell from the train and through the elevated tracks, landing on the street below. Alam’s half-brother told the Daily News that family members reviewed Reyes' social media accounts after his death and were surprised to discover he followed a number of subway surfing accounts.

“I was on Instagram a few days ago and randomly on my feed was a video of a kid subway surfing and this was a couple of days after we had learned of the last death from subway surfing,” the letter's author, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, told Gothamist. “And I was incredibly disturbed that this was not just searchable but that it was randomly coming up on feeds.”

In September, the MTA and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they had brokered a deal with social media companies to take down thousands of subway surfing videos. Last week, the MTA reported that 10,000 videos had since been removed from social media platforms.

A recent search on YouTube found only news reports on subway surfing. Snapchat didn’t appear to feature any subway surfing videos. A search of TikTok found videos of news reports accompanied by the following disclaimer: “Participating in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt.”

Instagram was the only platform where Gothamist was able to find subway surfing videos that were not part of news reports on subway surfing deaths.

Users can always set their posts to private, making it impossible to fully assess how many subway surfing videos are circulating on the platforms.

The MTA reports that five people died from subway surfing last year. That was the same number of people who died subway surfing between 2018 and 2022.

“These tragic incidents have a tremendous impact on train crews, who are often the first on scene,” New York City Transit President Richard Davey wrote in a statement. “We will continue to do our part in actively engaging with social media companies and continuing to find ways to hammer the message home: The views and likes are not worth your life.”

Last September, the MTA also released a new public awareness campaign with posters and audio announcements created by teenagers, warning about the dangers of riding atop subway cars.

The MTA has reported two deaths since the campaign launched, and that the NYPD stopped an average of 11 people a month from attempting to subway surf since September.

Myrie, who represents parts of Central Brooklyn, blamed social media for glamorizing, spreading and perpetuating the trend.

“We're just hoping to hold the social media companies to their word and do what they said they would do and protect our children,” he said.

A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment but pointed to the platform's guidelines, which note: “We do not allow showing or promoting dangerous activities and challenges.”

A spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram owner Meta declined to comment, deferring to the MTA’s remarks.