In a landmark ruling with implications for tech giants, a New York judge has decided that Meta and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance must face a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the grieving mother of 15-year-old Zackery Nazario. 
Zackery tragically lost his life in 2023 while subway surfing – a fatal stunt increasingly glamorized on social media.
Subway surfing, the act of riding outside a moving train, has become an internet daredevil trend. Teenagers chase adrenaline and clout by filming themselves on train rooftops or between cars, often sharing the footage on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Despite its popularity, the risk is brutally real. Participants can be decapitated by beams, thrown off by sudden jolts, or fall onto the tracks.
That’s what happened to Zackery. On a Brooklyn-bound J train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, he and his girlfriend climbed to the top. A low beam struck him, and he fell to his death. Later, his mother discovered his feeds filled with subway surfing clips and challenges – videos the court now suggests may have been algorithmically pushed to him by Meta and TikTok.
The judge rejected the companies’ usual defenses under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment, emphasizing that the case isn’t just about content hosted by the platforms. Instead, it raises serious questions about whether these companies’ engagement-boosting algorithms actively promote harmful behavior to minors.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, product liability, and wrongful death. While it’s still early in the legal process, this decision opens the door for accountability claims against tech platforms not just for what they host, but how they distribute it. As society continues to navigate the double-edged sword of social media, this case could redefine platform responsibility in the age of algorithm-driven content.