Meta, TikTok face thousands of lawsuits over alleged social media addiction

A U.S. appeals court on Monday refused to toss out thousands of lawsuits accusing Meta, TikTok and other tech giants of fueling social media addiction through deliberately addictive algorithms, ruling the companies jumped the gun by appealing too early.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the cases cannot be dismissed under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act because plaintiffs are not claiming the platforms merely hosted content. Instead, they argue that Meta’s Instagram and TikTok’s recommendation engines actively exploited users’ psychological vulnerabilities to maximize screen time, turning addiction into a business model. The judges concluded these claims must first go through fact-finding in lower courts before any immunity shield can be considered.

The ruling keeps alive a sprawling wave of litigation filed by parents, school districts and mental-health professionals who blame social media for rising rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among teenagers. Court filings show at least 3,000 cases consolidated in multidistrict litigation, with the first bellwether trials expected in 2025. Internal documents disclosed during discovery already show Meta knew its engagement algorithms could harm young users, yet continued to refine features such as infinite scroll and autoplay.

Legal experts say the decision sets up a potential Supreme Court showdown over whether Section 230 shields a platform’s design choices if those choices are alleged to cause real-world harm. If plaintiffs ultimately prevail, it could force every major platform to redesign feeds, add parental controls by default and open their algorithms to outside scrutiny. Tech lobbyists warn such changes would chill innovation, while public-health advocates argue the ruling is a necessary step toward holding Silicon Valley accountable for products that were engineered to be irresistible.