US Court Allows Thousands of Social Media Addiction Lawsuits Against Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat

A US appellate court has allowed more than 3,000 lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat to proceed. The plaintiffs claim that these companies designed their platforms to be addictive for children and teenagers.

The suits were filed by states, municipalities, school districts, and individuals, accusing the companies of deliberately engaging young users in prolonged social media use.

This is linked to rising rates of depression, anxiety, and body image problems among young people. Meta and TikTok attempted to challenge the court ruling that allowed these lawsuits to proceed, citing a statute that generally shields online services from liability for content posted by their users.