Judge Rules Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap Must Face Lawsuits over Student Mental Health Crisis

A federal judge has ruled that major tech companies must face lawsuits brought by school districts alleging their social media apps have contributed to a mental health crisis among students. The lawsuits target Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Google, China’s TikTok, and Snapchat.

Bloomberg reports that U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, has allowed lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap to proceed in federal court. The decision comes after a contrasting ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in June, which favored the tech giants.

The lawsuits, filed by school districts, accuse the companies of designing “addictive” apps that have contributed to a mental health crisis among students. The districts argue that the platforms were engineered to addict kids by using algorithms and features such as the “like” button, causing harm to society in a manner similar to cigarette manufacturers who designed their products to be addictive.

Judge Rogers denied the companies’ request to dismiss negligence claims, although she narrowed the scope of allegations that will move forward. She concluded that some claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that shields internet companies from lawsuits.

The ruling follows another decision by Judge Rogers just over a week ago, in which she ruled that Meta must face a lawsuit brought by dozens of state attorneys general alleging that the company knowingly hooked kids on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

The potential damages in the school district cases could be significant, as each district seeks to recoup institutional costs associated with the negative repercussions of having hundreds of individual students addicted to social media. The companies also face exposure from hundreds of personal injury suits accusing them of designing their platforms to encourage youths to spend unhealthy amounts of time on screens, resulting in emotional trauma.

Judge Rogers stated that the schools’ core legal theory was viable, noting that the social media companies “deliberately fostered compulsive use of their platforms which foreseeably caused” the school districts to spend resources on combating the mental health crisis among students.

The companies have denied any wrongdoing, asserting that they have taken steps to keep young users safe on their platforms. However, the split rulings from the Los Angeles and Oakland judges leave the tech giants potentially liable for damages in more than 150 cases before Judge Rogers, even as they may avoid liability in more than 600 other cases filed in Los Angeles.

The federal case, titled In Re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, is being heard in the US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).