New York judge allows wrongful death lawsuit against Meta and TikTok over teen subway surfing death
A New York judge ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit can proceed against Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance, brought by the mother of a 15-year-old boy who died while subway surfing in February 2023. The court found it plausible that the companies' algorithms actively targeted the teenager with dangerous content, exceeding neutral content hosting.
What happened
Zackery Nazario, age 15, died on February 20, 2023, after he and his girlfriend climbed atop a Brooklyn-bound J train as it crossed the Williamsburg Bridge. A low beam struck him, causing him to fall between subway cars, which ran over him.
His mother, Norma Nazario, later found several videos related to subway surfing on Zackery's Instagram and TikTok accounts. She filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that Meta and ByteDance had "goaded" her son into subway surfing by addicting him to their platforms through content about dangerous challenges.
Reported impact
Zackery Nazario was killed in the incident. His mother alleged that her son had become "addicted" to Instagram and TikTok, where content promoting dangerous stunts was regularly shown to him.
Index analysis
Justice Paul Goetz of the New York State Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2025, that Norma Nazario could proceed with claims that the social media defendants' algorithms played an active role exceeding neutral content hosting. The court found it plausible that the platforms engaged in "active identification of users who would be most impacted" based on their age.
The companies claimed immunity under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment's free speech clause, but the judge found the allegations sufficiently plausible to allow wrongful death, product liability, and negligence claims to proceed.
Governance controls
Meta and ByteDance described the teen's death as "heartbreaking" but declined to comment further on the ruling.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.