MTA says social media companies are ‘mostly compliant’ in removing subway-surfing content — despite no data showing removals
Well, this doesn’t track.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority claims it has pushed social media companies to take down viral videos of subway surfers — but it can’t say how many clips have actually been removed.
The authority said it has flagged more than 10,900 social media posts showing the boneheaded and sometimes deadly trend since last June, but it’s not clear how many actually ended up deleted or if anyone — including the social media companies — is even tracking those numbers.
The news comes about a week after MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber reported that social media companies are being “mostly compliant” in taking down dangerous content.
“We’re always checking every day to make sure they do take them down, and that they don’t get out,” MTA CEO and Chair Janno Lieber said at a press conference last week.
Though Lieber claimed that the companies have been “mostly compliant,” when The Post requested data, an MTA spokesperson said none was available and referred a reporter to the social media giants.
The spokesperson said officials use a database to track the surfing videos and said employees follow up with the companies to see if they’ve been removed, even though the rep said the agency has no figures on whether the posts ever end up deleted.
The social media companies themselves wouldn’t share figures — and it’s not clear they keep track of them at all.
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta said it had no figures to share. Neither did TikTok, while Snapchat didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Videos involving subway surfing can be violations of our Coordinating Harm and Promoting Crime policy,” a Meta rep said, noting that Meta removes content depicting, promoting, advocating for or encouraging participation in a high-risk viral challenge “except in the context of awareness raising or condemnation.”
“We also continue to engage with the NY MTA in removing violating subway surfing content and informing the public about its dangers,” the Meta spokesperson added.
A rep for TikTok also said the company is unable to share specific data.
TikTok does limit certain hashtags associated with dangerous, inappropriate or illegal content, but young users have found other hashtags that aren’t flagged – including one that unveiled an apparent bodily appendage hanging from a traffic light on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens after a subway surfing incident.
“Ya kids gotta stop subway surfing for God’s sake,” the caption read.
That video was removed from the hashtag but was still visible on the poster’s profile Tuesday after it was posted Monday afternoon.
Six people have died and 181 subway surfing-related arrests have been made to date this year — up from 118 arrests in 2023, according to NYPD data. One of those killed was a 13-year-old boy who had previously uploaded videos of himself completing the stunt to social media, according to his family.
“Subway surfing is a deadly trap, one that is endangering more and more young people who see others doing it on social media,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a public safety conference last Thursday, where he noted that 114 individuals have been helped to date by NYPD drones that spot subway surfers.
“But those five minutes of online fame could lead to years of regret and pain, or a lifetime of trauma and heartbreak for a family that loses a child,” the mayor added.
“While we can’t take them down ourselves, we do monitor those videos to see that they have been taken down,” an MTA rep said, “but it’s ultimately up to the company to monitor and remove.”
Following publication of The Post’s report, an MTA rep told a reporter that about 10,887 videos and photos depicting subway surfing have been confirmed to have been removed on social media as of Oct. 31.
“The MTA has spot-checked removals of hundreds of those postings, independently confirming their removal,” the spokesperson said, attributing the agency’s lack of data before publication to a “misunderstanding.”
“We are confident that, at the MTA’s request, through use of proprietary monitoring technology social media companies are efficiently removing content that glamorizes reckless riding outside subway trains, which puts children at deadly risk,” the spokesperson added. “As we’ve said repeatedly, news organizations also have a responsibility to avoid displaying images of riders on top of trains, that can also encourage conduct leading to tragic outcomes.”
