Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin is asking social media companies and WMATA for help in controlling the “subway surfing” trend that led to the death of a teenager in D.C. in June.
“This online trend has deadly consequences,” wrote Rep. Raskin to Meta and TikTok. “This summer, my constituent, Jay Thirunarayanapuram, lost his life five days after his fifteenth birthday while subway surfing. His loving parents and friends are devastated, and our world is poorer for our loss of a bright young artist, animal lover and extraordinary young man.”
He added that “subway surfers” are often teenagers and are influenced by their peers and posts on social media.
The surfing dare consists of people filming themselves riding outside or on top of a moving subway car.
Meta and TikTok policies restrict content containing “anything unlawful” or “promoting dangerous activities and challenges…that may lead to significant physical harm.” But, Raskin says it continues to happen.
He says diligent content monitoring and “strong, ongoing enforcement of platform guidelines can prevent the proliferation of subway surfing videos and deter impressionable young people from this dangerous activity.”
Raskin asked in his letters for information from WMATA on what they are doing to “reduce and deter” subway surfing.
Raskin said in a news release that recent media reports have documented an alarming rise in “subway surfing” incidents on the East Coast, with New York City recording 928 incidents in 2023 and four deaths in the first six months of this year.
