A New York state judge has said that Meta Platforms (owner of Instagram) and ByteDance (owner of TikTok) can be sued by the heartbroken mother of a 15-year-old boy who was killed in New York City during an illegal activity known as subway surfing.
The ruling, which was emotional and potentially precedent-setting, was issued by the New York State Supreme Court Judge, Paul Goetz on Friday, June 28, 2025.
The judge dismissed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Norma Nazario, mother of Zackery Nazario, against two of the biggest tech companies in the world that states their platforms were the direct cause of the death of her son.
So What happened to Zackery?
On February 20, 2023, Zackery Nazario passed away in a terrible accident that shook a whole city. The boy and his girlfriend had been surfing along the top of a Brooklyn-bound J train and were crossing the Williamsburg Bridge when they fell off.
Unfortunately, Zackery was hit by one of the low beams and fell in between the carriages of the train. He was knocked down and killed.
His mother explained that she later found multiple subway surfing challenge videos on his Instagram and TikTok accounts, which she thinks influenced and motivated her son to do the dangerous stunt.
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The Struggle of a Mother to Receive Justice
After the death of her son, Norma Nazario sued Meta and ByteDance on the basis of wrongful death. She claimed that the companies had deliberately subjected Zackery to harmful and addictive material with specific videos endorsing subway surfing and other unsafe endeavors being pushed to him.
She says that both Instagram and Tik Tok programs their algorithms to interest young people and promote content that would make them spend more time in front of the screens, even when the content was bad.
She has also issued a claim of product liability and negligence in her suit, stating that the platforms had not done enough to shield vulnerable users such as her son.
The Defense of the Companies Is Section 230 and Free Speech
Both Meta and ByteDance noted in their defense that the death of Zackery was a heartbreaking story but should not make them liable by the law under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is a federal legislation that exempts technology corporations against any liability regarding contribution of information by users.
They used the first amendment as well, saying that their sites support free speech and that just because they are hosting or screening user generated videos does not make them liable to damage done by the videos.
The Response of the Judge: Platforms Might have Been the Active Recipients of Zackery
Justice Paul Goetz dismissed those arguments, however, at least at this initial phase of the case. In his judgment, he stated that the allegations by Nazario are plausible to continue with in court.
He insisted that the platforms might have transcended passive storage of videos. Goetz believes that it is conceivable that the role of the social media defendants went beyond the neutral assistance in the promotion of the content, and it amounted to the active identification of the users that would be most affected.
That is, in case the platforms actively recommended the hazardous videos to the young users, such as Zackery, via their algorithms, they will become responsible for the outcomes.
What Had Been Rejected?
Although the lawsuit against Meta and TikTok was permitted to continue, the judge dismissed against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) of New York City.
Goetz said that Zackery ought to have known about the risks of subway surfing and that it is, indeed, a common-sense reality of the life in this city. His take on this was that the MTA was not liable to a conduct it did not promote or tolerate.
The Implication of This in the Future
The decision is an invitation to the legal team of Norma Nazario to start discovery, during which it may demand internal information, data and communications of both Meta and ByteDance regarding how their platforms operate and how content is amplified to young viewers.
This case is among a series of cases filed against social media companies that claim that their algorithms are addictive and detrimental, especially to adolescents.
There are thousands of similar suits that are already being filed throughout the U.S. Schools, local governments, and parents have targeted companies such as Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram as being aware that they are prioritizing money over security.
This New York ruling might be a guide in other courts.
The Dangers of Subway Surfing: An Epidemic on the Rise
Surfing the subway is hardly a recent trend, however, it has become especially prominent in the era of social media. The stunt has been emphasized by short-form videos which are frequently backed by music and edited in a way which makes the stunt look thrilling or fun.
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As New York City police reported, six people had died in subway surfing in 2024 alone, not to mention hundreds of people being injured. The trend has been declared as life-threatening many times by the authorities.
Parents and educationists have asked technology companies to step up to identify and delete content involving subway surfing and other dangerous assignments.
What the Platforms Report
By Monday afternoon, Meta, ByteDance, and its lawyers had not made a public statement on the judge ruling. Equally, Norma Nazario and her attorneys did not answer press requests, probably dwelling on their further legal struggle.
Yet at this point, there is at least one thing that is certain: A judge has ruled that social media firms can indeed be held liable in potentially treating their sites as a means of sharing dangerous information with impressionable young people.
The case of Norma Nazario struggling to recover the legacy of her son is hardly over, and the future of the tech business may be significantly affected by the verdict.