US appeals court says social media addiction lawsuits can proceed

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected tech companies’ bid to stop more than 3,000 lawsuits over addictive platform design

A federal appeals court in the United States has permitted thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat and other social media companies for allegedly designing addictive products that harm children, rejecting the companies’ initial bids to stop litigation before trial.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the appeal came too early – most appeals are only filed after a case concludes with a ruling or verdict. The companies had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which generally shields online platforms from liability over user-generated and user-posted content, also protected them from claims that they failed to warn the public about the addictive design of their platforms.

The court disagreed, finding that Section 230 offers a defence to liability rather than blanket immunity from being sued, rendering the appeal premature.

The panel also denied Meta’s request to delay the trial set to begin on Wednesday, brought by 29 state attorneys general who allege the company illegally collected and used children’s data, and engineered its platforms to keep young users hooked, ultimately misleading the public about their safety.

The ruling comes as several countries are penalising social media platforms’ allegedly harmful design that can directly impact children’s and teenagers’ health, including self-harm and eating disorders, according to The Guardian. France plans to ban under-15s from social media sites and prohibit mobile phones in high schools from next month. Australia has also imposed a ban and Britain plans one next year.

The legal moves reflect rising public concern over online harms to minors. President Emmanuel Macron has pointed to social media as a factor in youth violence and has signalled he wants France to follow Australia’s world-first ban on social media for children under 16. The law obliges major social media platforms to block under-16s, with companies that fail to comply facing penalties of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($35 million).

In late May, Britain’s then Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, vowed to take “decisive” action to tackle the impact of social media on British youngsters. That was after families, who insist their children died as a result of social media, and campaigners rallied outside Downing Street to hold tech giants accountable.

The US lawsuits, filed by states, municipalities, school districts and individual families, allege that the companies knowingly built addictive products that have fuelled the surge in depression, anxiety and broader youth mental health crises. The cases are centralised before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, where plaintiffs are seeking damages, penalties and restitution.

A jury in Los Angeles has already found Meta and Google negligent in the first such case to reach trial, awarding $6m to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child, according to Reuters.

Meta separately lost both phases of a New Mexico lawsuit, with a jury ordering $375m in damages over misleading safety claims and a judge later imposing an additional $567m penalty after finding the company had created a public nuisance.

Meta and Google have denied wrongdoing and said they plan to appeal.