Judge Rules Social Media Giants Must Face Child Safety Lawsuits

A federal court has ruled that social media giants Meta (formerly Facebook), ByteDance (owner of TikTok), Alphabet (parent company of Google and YouTube), and Snap must face a lawsuit alleging that their platforms have adverse effects on the mental health of children. The court rejected the companies' motion to dismiss the lawsuits, which accuse them of running addictive platforms that cause physical and emotional harm to children. The ruling states that the First Amendment and Section 230 do not shield the companies from liability, as many of the claims relate to alleged defects on the platforms, such as insufficient parental controls and age verification systems. While some claims were thrown out, the ruling could pave the way for more safety claims against social media platforms.