A federal appeals court rejected an attempt by social media companies to dismiss thousands of lawsuits alleging young people were addicted to their services, insisting the appeal using Section 230 of the Communications Act was improperly made and allowing the claims to move forward.
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Key Facts
- In a brief opinion issued on Monday, the California-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal brought by numerous social media companies, including Meta, Snap and the owners of TikTok, YouTube and Roblox.
- Section 230 is a clause of the Communications Act that largely provides immunity from liability to online service providers based on what third-party content other people post on their platforms.
- However, the court ruled that Section 230 only provides a defense for liability, “not an immunity from suit”—meaning Meta and the other companies appealed too early in the lawsuit for the court to have “appellate jurisdiction.”
- The appeal was part of a massive case that consolidated thousands of lawsuits from individuals, state attorneys general and school districts.
Key Background
In March, Meta and Google lost the first of the social media addiction cases that went to trial. A California jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages, as well as another $3 million in punitive damages, to a 20-year-old woman who argued she became addicted to their platforms at a young age due to their designs. The bellwether verdict came only one day after Meta lost a state trial in New Mexico, where the social media giant was ordered to pay out $375 million for misleading users about social media’s impact on children’s mental health. The state court hit the company with another $567 million fine last week after ruling it had created a “public nuisance.” However, Meta also notched a rare win when one teenage plaintiff dropped a similar lawsuit in Florida last month. The same teenager already secured settlements with TikTok, Snap and YouTube, the New York Times reported.
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