Meta, TikTok, Google and Snap Face 3,000+ Youth Safety Lawsuits

A federal appeals court has cleared the way for more than 3,000 lawsuits accusing Meta, TikTok, Google and Snap of deliberately engineering their platforms to hook young users, dealing the tech giants a significant legal setback as they continue to fight a wave of litigation over the mental health effects of social media on children and teenagers.

On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the companies could not immediately appeal a lower court decision permitting the sprawling litigation to proceed, finding that such an appeal was premature at the current stage of the case. The ruling keeps thousands of federal lawsuits filed by state governments, cities, school districts and individual families moving forward in the courts.

At the center of the dispute is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that has long shielded internet platforms from liability tied to content posted by their users. Meta, TikTok, Google and Snap had argued that the statute granted them outright immunity from the claims, which they said should have entitled them to challenge the litigation immediately rather than wait for the cases to fully play out.

Rejecting that argument, the appellate panel determined that Section 230 functions as a legal defense the companies can raise during litigation rather than a shield that blocks them from being sued in the first place. Because of that distinction, the court concluded, the companies had no basis to seek an immediate appeal.

Underlying the dispute are allegations that the platforms intentionally built addictive features into their products, luring children and teens into compulsive use that plaintiffs say has fueled rising rates of depression, anxiety, body image struggles and other psychological harm.

Meta's legal troubles deepened further Monday when the same appeals court refused to delay a separate trial set to begin Wednesday. That case, brought by a coalition of 29 state attorneys general, accuses the company of unlawfully harvesting and exploiting children's personal data, engineering its platforms to maximize youth engagement, and misleading the public about the safety of its products for younger users.

Beyond the federal litigation, Meta, TikTok, Google and Snap are also contending with hundreds of related lawsuits moving through state courts, where several cases have already produced verdicts against some of the companies.

In March, a Los Angeles jury delivered the first verdict in California's consolidated social media addiction litigation, finding both Meta and Google negligent and awarding $6 million to a woman who said she developed an addiction to Instagram and YouTube during childhood.

A New Mexico jury also ordered Meta in March to pay $375 million in damages. A judge in the same state added to that amount last week, ordering the company to pay an additional $567 million and adopt a series of youth-safety measures after determining that Meta had created a public nuisance through its platform design.

Both Meta and Google have denied wrongdoing in the cases decided against them and have said they intend to appeal those verdicts.

The 9th Circuit's decision leaves the more than 3,000 pending federal cases in the lower courts for further proceedings, while the companies remain able to raise Section 230 and other defenses as the litigation moves forward.