Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat; major tech firms to face thousands of lawsuits over social media addiction

In the latest development, a U.S. appeals court has ruled that big tech companies, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Alphabet’s Google, ByteDance (TikTok), and Snap (Snapchat), could face thousands of lawsuits over allegations of social media addiction.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a major ruling concerning claims that the companies intentionally designed their platforms with features that could encourage addictive use among young people, raising growing concerns about online safety and potential harm to children and teenagers.

As reported by Reuters, the San Francisco-based court rejected an appeal by Meta and TikTok seeking to overturn a lower court ruling requiring them to face more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court, saying the companies had appealed too early.

The tech giants argued they were protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which generally shields internet companies from liability for content posted by third-party users.

The companies claimed this immunity should extend to shield them from design-related claims.

However, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Section 230 provides a defense to liability rather than total immunity from being sued, rendering the companies' interlocutory appeal premature as most appeals come after a case has concluded with a ruling or a verdict.

The tech giants contended that they should not have to wait until the litigation ends to challenge the lower court's rejection of their immunity defense.

The massive wave of federal lawsuits filed by school districts, families, and municipalities has been centralized before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

Plaintiffs argue that the platforms' core structural designs (such as algorithmic feeds and infinite scrolling) have fueled a youth mental health crisis characterized by depression, anxiety, and body-image issues.

The news comes days after a New Mexico judge found Meta had created a public nuisance in the state and ordered it to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund and implement youth-safety measures.

"A trial is how the public finds out what Meta knew about its products' impact on children, when it knew it, and what it chose to do with that knowledge," one if the attorneys said. "Meta has fought to keep that evidence from the public."

The New Mexico public nuisance ruling against Meta followed an earlier phase in the trial, in which a jury in March ordered it to pay $375 million after finding it had misled consumers about the safety of its platforms.

In the first lawsuit to go to trial in the California litigation, and a closely watched test of how juries might respond to similar claims, a Los Angeles jury in March found Meta and Google negligent for designing social media platforms that harm young people.