US Appeals Court Allows Thousands of Lawsuits Against Meta, TikTok and Other Tech Companies

 

A US appeals court has allowed thousands of lawsuits against Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, ByteDance’s TikTok and Snap’s Snapchat to move forward over claims that their products were designed to be addictive to young users.

 

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Meta and TikTok seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that requires them to face more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court. The appeals court said the companies had appealed too early.

 

The companies had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 – which generally shields online companies from liability over content posted by users – also bars lawsuits alleging that they failed to warn the public about the addictive nature of their platforms.

 

Most appeals are filed after a case has concluded with a ruling or verdict. The companies argued that they should not have to wait until the litigation ends to challenge the lower court’s rejection of their Section 230 defence. However, the 9th Circuit said Section 230 provides a defence against liability, rather than immunity from lawsuits, making the appeal premature.

 

The court also rejected Meta’s bid to postpone a trial that was due to begin on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by 29 state attorneys general. The states allege that Meta illegally collected and used children’s data, designed its social media platforms to keep young users hooked and misled consumers about their safety.

 

Meta had argued that the trial could not proceed while its appeal was pending.

 

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

 

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday’s ruling.

 

Lexi Hazam and Previn Warren, attorneys representing thousands of school districts and individuals suing Meta and other companies in the federal litigation, said the ruling would allow the states’ trial to proceed, as well as a trial involving claims brought by school districts scheduled for February.

 

They said the trial would allow the public to learn what Meta knew about its products’ impact on children, when it knew it and what it did with that knowledge.

 

Thousands of Lawsuits

 

Filed by states, municipalities, school districts and individuals, the lawsuits allege that social media companies intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive to young users, contributing to rising levels of depression, anxiety and body-image problems and a broader mental health crisis among American young people.

 

Parents, school districts, states and other plaintiffs had argued that the trial court’s ruling was not final and therefore could not be appealed. They also challenged the companies’ reliance on Section 230, arguing that it does not cover claims concerning how the platforms are operated and designed.

 

The cases have been consolidated before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. Plaintiffs are seeking damages, penalties and restitution from the companies.

 

The companies appealed orders issued by Judge Rogers in 2023 and 2024 that largely allowed the litigation to proceed.

 

The companies are also facing hundreds of additional lawsuits involving similar claims in state courts, including approximately 3,300 cases consolidated in California state court.

 

In the first lawsuit to go to trial in the California litigation – 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 harmed young people. The jury awarded $6 million to a young woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child.

 

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

 

Meta and Google, which have denied the allegations in those cases, have said they will appeal.