Mayor Adams on Women Being Randomly Punched in NYC: ‘You See the Corrosiveness of TikTok’

Morgan: “Before we talk about the subway crime, let’s talk about these, you know, accusations and allegations that women have been punched across the city, several places across the city, claim it on TikTok and now there have been, what, two arrests?”

Adams: “Yes. Yes. Despicable. You know, they better hope that I’m not out on the street when I see that takes place. It’s unbelievable that you see the corrosiveness of TikTok not only for teaching people how to steal cars, how to ride on top of subway stations’ trains. But just this pervasive, negative, anti‑social behavior. And for a woman to walk the street, I have two sisters, it’s unacceptable to be punched in that manner. Now, this version of TikTok is not displayed in China. China, which puts out TikTok, you can’t have this in their country. That is why we’re going after social media companies.”

Morgan: “So, we do see these incidents happening on video.”

Adams: “Well, we’ve seen a few in the city, but one is too many. We see this trending when someone sees something on TikTok, Instagram or one of these social media platforms, they duplicate this behavior and there’s a real correlation between the negative actions and what people are seeing trending on social media.”