U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin called on social media companies to ban videos promoting subway surfing, which resulted in the death of a North Woodside, Silver Spring teenager in June.
Jay Thirunarayanapuram died five days before his 15th birthday as he subway surfed, which Raskin described as a dangerous social media trend in which people climb onto a subway and then ride outside or on top of the subway car while it is moving.
According to a Metro spokesperson, a passenger attempted stunt riding from the Brookland Station on the Red Line on June 20 a little after 4:30 p.m. The dead body was found on the Rhode Island Avenue train tracks shortly thereafter.
Raskin on Friday wrote to Meta, Tik Tok and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) about his concerns.
“This online trend has deadly consequences,” Raskin wrote.
He pointed to Thirunarayanapuram’s death, noting, “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.”
According to the 8th District Democrat, Meta and Tik Tok have policies restricting content that contains anything unlawful or promotes dangerous activities. However, he noted, some of this type of content still finds its way online.
He wrote, “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.”
In Raskin’s letter to WMATA, he requested the transit authority “share any further steps the authority is considering to reduce and deter this practice.”
