Social Media Lawsuits

The judge overseeing the social media MDL rejected an attempt by the owners of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to dismiss claims which have been brought by school districts around the country. The claims seek damages which stem from mental health issues in students.

The lawsuits allege that social media platforms were purposefully designed to manipulate users and maximize user engagement in order to get teens addicted to the apps.

The lawsuits allege that this has led to widespread addiction among teens, leading to psychological damage, eating disorders, depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.

School districts are seeking reimbursement for the costs of establishing mental health programs and other measures such as mobile crisis units.

Hundreds of lawsuits have also been filed by the families of children who have been injured by social media addiction.

Social media platforms had previously filed a motion in order to dismiss the school districts' lawsuits. The motion argued that the school districts' costs were too remote from the platforms' actions.

The judge, on October 24, rejected the motion. The judge found that negligence causes of action will be allowed to move forward.

The judge found that the school districts' costs are "a sufficiently direct and foreseeable consequence" of the social media companies deliberately designing their platforms to get users addicted to them.

A judge in Massachusetts has rejection Meta's motion to dismiss a lawsuit which was brought by the state's Attorney General. The lawsuit claims Meta intentionally makes sure its platforms foster social media addictions in teens and children which are psychologically damaging.

The complaint was filed in October 2023 and alleges that Instagram is a public nuisance which violates consumer protection laws in the state.

The state court lawsuit is just one of numerous similar lawsuits which Attorneys General around the nation have filed against different internet platforms. The lawsuits allege that social media interfaces and algorithms are designed to cause underage users to become addicted to the platforms.

Over 600 social media lawsuits are pending in federal court which allege that social media platforms like ByteDance Inc., TikTok Inc., Snap Inc., YouTube LLC, Google LLC, Alphabet Inc. and Meta have placed profits over the safety and health of America's youth.

The lawsuits allege that the platforms have been explicitly designed to maximize and manipulate user engagement time in order to get teens addicted to social media. The lawsuits allege this has led to long-term psychological damage, eating disorders, depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.

Meta had filed a motion to get the case dismissed. This motion argued that a proper claim hadn't been filed by the state, arguing Meta isn't responsible for any content which its third-party users create.

However, the judge rejected these arguments, denying the motion. The judge indicated that the claims by the state were aimed at Meta's activities as well as Instagram's design, not at third-party users' activities.

September saw 10 cases added to the social media MDL, which now involves 594 pending cases.

Instagram has announced that it will, by default, make teens' accounts private. This is in order to address concerns about the impact of social media on kids, especially regarding addiction to social media and the role the platform has in exposing kids to content which is harmful.

We believe this change is due to the lawsuits which accuse Meta as well as other platforms of fueling a mental health crisis in youth by intentionally making their platforms addictive, encouraging teens to use them excessively, leading to serious mental health problems.

Beginning this week in the United States as well as Australia, Canada and the U.K., new users of Instagram who are under the age of 18 will see their accounts get set to private automatically. Existing accounts of teens will get transitioned to settings which are more restrictive within two months. The settings will restrict access to content which is sensitive as well as limit those who are able to contact teen users.

This will certainly help, but it doesn't do enough to combat the design of Instagram, which is built to cause young users become addicted to the platform. These changes won't fully address long-term damage which social media addiction causes. It's important to reduce nighttime notifications and restrict messaging. However, Instagram still lets teens bypass any warnings and keep using the platform beyond time limits which are recommended.

We hope we're wrong. However, we predict the changes won't do a lot to alter the business model of Instagram, which heavily relies on making sure that users, especially teens, are engaged as much as possible.

Horry County Schools, a school district in South Carolina, joined a nationwide lawsuit on Friday which seeks to hold social media companies accountable for their alleged role in a mental health crisis being experienced by America's youth.

The lawsuit names Youtube, Google, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Meta as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that the social media companies violated consumer protection laws in numerous ways, such as by collecting minors' data without the consent of parents in order to create marketing campaigns which are targeted.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said that features like instant new content alerts and infinite scrolling are designed to addict young users and keep them using the platforms. Wilson claims Meta was aware that addictive features like these harm the mental and physical health of young users but failed to warn about this risk or make changes to minimize this risk.

A lawsuit filed by a mother whose 10-year-old girl died after participation in a TikTok challenge has been reviewed by a United States appeals court. The review has challenged protections given to social media companies provided by the Communications Decency Act's Section 230.

The challenge involved encouraging TikTok users to choke themselves to the point of losing consciousness. The lawsuit involves a girl who, taking part in this challenge, accidentally hung herself. The lawsuit blames TikTok for not protecting the child from being exposed to the challenge.

The lawsuit claims that the TikTok algorithm shouldn't have recommended the child the challenge. While a lower court initially dismissed the case due to Section 230 protections, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has reinstated the case.

Judge Patty Shwartz has decided that the TikTok algorithm should end up being considered editorial content. The judge has drawn a distinction between the passive hosting of third-party content and the active promotion of content through algorithms that recommend content in order to make sure users are kept engaged.

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that social media algorithms can be considered to be "editorial judgments," meaning social media companies could be held financially liable when their systems recommend harmful content to social media users.

The ruling by the appeals court could have significant consequences for social media companies. The ruling, if it is upheld, suggests that social media companies can be held liable for content which their platforms' algorithms recommend to their users, even when the content is created by third party creators.

The case was resubmitted to a lower court, and now TikTok will need to defend itself against claims without Section 230's protection. This could lead to more details being revealed about how the company's recommendation algorithm works and decides what content to recommend to users, especially minors.

A New York minor has filed a lawsuit against Meta, seeking class-action status. The lawsuit alleges that Meta looked to keep teen users hooked on its platform Instagram while it knowingly exposed teens to content which is harmful.

The lawsuit argues the company added features that its leaders were aware would cause teens to get addicted to Instagram, like displaying counts regarding the number of "likes" which posts get, even while internal evidence mounted showing this could harm the mental health of teens.

The 13-year-old girl seeks $5 billion worth of damages which would be shared amongst eligible users of Instagram should the suit be certified.

Court filings alleges the teen had lower grades, depression and anxiety due to Instagram usage.

The lawsuit is one of only a few private lawsuits against social media companies which seek class-action status to compensate for mental health issues in minors since it was exposed by a whistleblower in 2021 that internal research by Meta showed that teens' body image issues were worsened by Instagram.

The lawsuit adds to an increasing number of lawsuits against Meta from school districts and state attorneys general which aim to tie a mental health crisis in America's teens to social media. It is argued by the lawsuits that consumer protection laws were violated by Meta, who deployed manipulative features in order to tempt teens to continue using its platforms to boost profits, even though executives with the company knew that the platforms harmed teens.

Some of Instagram's features were allegedly designed to cause young users to get addicted to the platform, such as ephemeral photo and video posts called "stories," displayed counts of "likes" which encourage the platform's users to keep track of the number of people who like their posts, as well as app notifications which alert young users of new content.

The lawsuit claims the plaintiff developed thoughts regarding her appearance and body which are self-deprecating since she started using Instagram, and alleges she can't stop using the platform while with family, checking the site often to ensure she won't miss ephemeral content her friends post. The lawsuit claims her school grades have been harmed because she developed depression and anxiety due to worries that she's being ignored by her friends when they fail to engage with or like her stories.

Utah's Jordan School District was named lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against social media companies regarding alleged harm done to young people.

Numerous school districts have filed lawsuits against the owners of Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram, alleging they are "negligent" and a "public nuisance" in harming young users' mental health.

School district officials have claimed they have needed to spend millions of dollars on mental health services for students.

A lawsuit has been filed in the social media addiction MDL naming Robolx Corp. as a defendant. This company owns a popular gaming platform known as Roblox. This isn't a typical social media platform - it is instead a gaming platform which has elements of social media.

The lawsuit claims that the plaintiff, a 13-year-old girl, got addicted to Snapchat and Roblox, and that this addiction led to her becoming a victim of depression and sexual abuse.

In other news, a wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the MDL involving claims that a Missouri girl got addicted to TikTok and Snapchat at the age of 10 or 11, and that the addiction caused severe depression which led to her harming herself and eventually committing suicide at the age of 17.

24 new cases were added to the social media addiction MDL in June, bringing the total number of cases to 499.

Cases keep coming in, such as a new social media lawsuit on July 1 involving a California woman who claims Snapchat and Instagram caused her to develop compulsive use, addiction, self-harm, anxiety and depression, including attempted suicide when the woman was a teenager.

In other news, in June, a front-page article was published in the New York Times covering how Meta failed children regarding safety. The prevailing opinions and cultural climate regarding social media are obviously in the favor of plaintiffs in the social media litigation. The media is priming juries to think that social media companies aren't doing what they're capable of in order to protect kids.

Los Angeles Unified School District, the country's second largest school district, has voted to ban student use of smartphones during school hours. The vote comes as concerns grow regarding the effect of social media on the mental health of young people.

The school board voted 5 to 2 on the ban. The ban will be enforced during 2025's spring semester and will impact almost 500,000 students.

Current smartphone restrictions in the district ban the use of smartphones during instruction in class, and limit the use of social media in school. The new rule bans smartphone use entirely during school hours.

Attorneys involved in social media litigation met on Friday with the judge overseeing the social media addiction MDL in order to discuss claims families are pursuing throughout the country as well as the progress made in preparation for the initial bellwether trial in the litigation. The first bellwether trial is scheduled for October 25, 2025.

The lawsuits against social media companies such as Meta, Google and TikTok allege that social media companies intentionally design their platforms to maximize user engagement and time via manipulation, and that this has led to teen users experiencing self-destructive behavior, addiction, depression, anxiety, psychological damage, eating disorders, attempted suicides and actual suicides.

The Surgeon General of the United States has called for social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to issue new warnings alerting users and parents about risks regarding mental health side effects that disproportionately impact adolescents and teens.

The Surgeon General, in an opinion piece in the New York Times, warned that a mental health crisis exists in young Americans, and that one significant contributor to this crisis is social media. He has called on Congress to provide him with the power to mandate a warning by the Surgeon General on every social media platform, just like the warnings required on tobacco products such as packs of cigarettes.

The Surgeon General noted that adolescents spending over three hours per day on social media have twice the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms, and that the average person in this age group spent 4.8 hours per day on social media in 2023's summer.

He noted that a recent survey of parents found that 76 percent of parents would monitor or limit the social media use of their children if a Surgeon General's warning was placed on social media sites.

The warning comes as social media companies are facing lawsuits alleging their platforms are designed intentionally to manipulate youth and maximize their time using the platforms. The lawsuit allege the platforms are causing self-destructive behavior and addiction in teens, leading to psychological damage, eating disorders, anxiety and depression which has caused attempted and actual suicides.

The social media companies are accused of ignoring evidence about harmful consequences linked with their platforms, and are accused of refusing to do anything in order to prevent harm since doing something would impact their profits.

A lawsuit filed by a Kentucky family alleges that the family's daughter suffered from suicidality, self-harm, anxiety, depression, binge eating, bulimia and anorexia due to her use of YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

The social media addiction MDL saw 20 new cases added to it in May, bringing the total number of cases to 475.

An order has been issued by the MDL judge about bellwether actions in the social media MDL. This order requires defendants such as YouTube, TikTok, Snap and Meta to provide specific account data snapshots and fact sheets for specific bellwether plaintiffs. The fact sheets are regarding plaintiffs' usage of platforms.

A new lawsuit has been filed in the social media MDL. The 19-year-old plaintiff from South Carolina alleges she got addicted to TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram from 2018 through 2024, claiming the addiction led to her suffering from mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The lawsuit also claims this addiction directly caused her to be involved in a severe auto accident involving serious injuries.

Attorneys who are suing TikTok in the U.S. claim that TikTok offers safety features in other countries which it does not offer in the United States, implying the social media platform could do more in order to protect young American users.

In a court filing last week, attorneys representing parents and their children claim that the differences between how the company operates in different countries are relevant to litigation.

However, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, refuses to share additional info regarding Douyin, China's TikTok counterpart, with their lawyers claiming that "what happens overseas should stay overseas."

Plaintiffs' lawyers are claiming that the Chinese version of TikTok protects children in ways which the United States version does not.

However, ByteDance legal representatives claim that seeking information regarding how the app behaves outside of the United States isn't relevant, and is simply a "discovery detour."

ByteDance lawyers claim that services developed to be used in other countries are subject to different regulations and laws which reflect the different priorities and cultures of those countries.

TikTok is facing over 1,000 lawsuits, filed by parents, school districts and other parties, alleging that it uses algorithms to make sure young users are kept addicted to its platform, leading to young people struggling with depression, anxiety, sleeplessness and eating disorders.

The County of Oakland, Michigan has filed a complaint in California court, suing Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google for negligence and public nuisance.

The lawsuit claims that the youth of Oakland suffer from suicidal ideation, depression, distraction and additional mental disorders due to overconsuming social media every day.

The lawsuit alleges that as a result, the county has needed to fund in-school mental health trainings and programming, family-based mental health services, mobile crisis units and mental health outpatient programs.

The allegations in the lawsuit mirror allegations being raised in separate lawsuits by parents, which claim that social media companies put profits ahead of young users' mental health, don't sufficiently moderate or monitor their platforms, design algorithms which prioritize profits over safety, and have ignored clear evidence that their behavior has harmful consequences.

In other news, 16 cases were added to the social media addiction MDL in April, bringing the total number of cases to 455.

A judge in California is seemingly unconvinced by arguments by Meta for dismissing claims by the attorney generals of 34 states regarding the company's social media platforms being addictive.

The judge stated that Meta hasn't been transparent regarding the designs of its platforms and that it is plausible for the attorney generals of the states to obtain documentation regarding psychiatric treatment in order to demonstrate economic harm.

In other news, two dozen schools as well as districts in New York are joining federal litigation filed against social media companies which seeks changes to social media platforms in order to make the platforms less addictive. The lawsuits are seeking restitution for expenses incurred by schools and districts while dealing with students' mental health issues.

The social media companies are being accused by the litigation of intentionally designing their platforms to addict young users by funneling specific types of content to students which encourages them to spend additional time on the platforms.

Over 900 school districts are involved in the litigation.

The lawsuits allege that social media companies have engaged in negligent and reckless misconduct leading to a youth mental health crisis.

A lawsuit has been filed by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin which alleges that the companies who own Google, Youtube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, created a crisis in youth mental help through their social media apps, alleging the defendants targeted children, considering them a "core market," intentionally causing children to become addicted to their platforms. The lawsuit claims the companies design social media apps to attract youth and cause them to become addicted to them, claiming the companies aren't doing enough in order to protect children from their platforms' harmful effects.

The lawsuit claims that suicide rates in tribal teens are as much as four times higher than the average in the United States.

A similar lawsuit has also been filed by North Dakota's Spirit Lake Tribe.

Some claims have been dismissed against Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, in 12 lawsuits which accuse him of hiding from the public that Instagram and Facebook are harmful to kids.

Plaintiffs had argued that Zuckerberg's public stature, as well as his role as Meta's "trusted voice," meant that a duty existed under the laws of numerous states for him to speak truthfully and fully on the risks Meta's products pose to kids.

A judge, however, said plaintiffs can't rely upon Zuckerberg's knowledge of Meta products in order to establish that he owes a duty to plaintiffs, stating that a ruling such of this would lead to any publicly recognizable figure having a duty to disclose.

The lawsuits themselves have not been dismissed and Meta remains a defendant.

A lawsuit filed on March 29 in California alleges that a 15 year old boy committed suicide after being "sextorted" via a blackmail scheme on Facebook.

"Sextortion" is a type of coercion or blackmail where perpetrators threaten to distribute or release sensitive or explicit material of victims unless victims meet their demands, which can include additional sexual content or money.

The lawsuit alleges that South African scammers coerced the boy into sharing indecent and explicit photos by posing as a teenage girl, then demanded the boy pay $3,500 or they'd share the pictures.

The lawsuit accuses social media companies such as Meta of defectively and negligently designing their social media platforms in a way that poses possible harm to children.

Chesterfield County Public Schools in Chesterfield County, Virginia has joined over 400 other school districts by filing a lawsuit against Youtube's, Facebook's, Instagram's, Snapchat's and TikTok's owners, claiming content which is posted on the platforms has caused damage to the wellbeing and mental health of students, disrupting classroom environments in the process.

WRIC News reported that trends posted on social media have included a "devious lick challenge" encouraging students to perform theft at school, as well as an "outlet challenge" encouraging students to place coins between phone chargers and electrical outlets.

The lawsuit mentions a 2023 United States Surgeon General study claiming that 95% of teenagers between 13 and 17 years old say they use social media "almost constantly."

Durham Public Schools in Durham, North Carolina has joined 60 additional school boards in a lawsuit filed against social media companies such as Google, Snapchat and Meta. The lawsuit claims that the social media companies are having a negative impact upon students' mental health. The school boards are seeking financial compensation in order to alleviate a strain on the schools' resources.

In February, the lawsuit was joined by the board of education in North Carolina's Wake County, stating they sought to push social media companies to protect minors' well-being and health and end practices which harm and exploit students.

A bill in Utah, HB464, would allow parents to sue the companies who run social media platforms. The bill would allow parents to file lawsuits when their children develop mental health issues as a result of using social media apps.

The bill would allow social media companies to exempt themselves from lawsuits if they can demonstrate to the court that they:

• Limit Utah minors from using their social media app for more than three hours per day
• Restrict Utah minors from using their social media app during the hours between 10:30 PM and 6:30 AM
• Require parents or legal guardians to consent to Utah minors using their social media app
• Disable design elements which are engagement-driven for the social media accounts of Utah minors

In other news, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, has argued that he, as an individual, cannot be held liable for accusations that Meta's platforms have caused children to become social media addicts.

Zuckerberg requested that he be personally dropped from two dozen lawsuits alleging that children have been harmed by the actions of Meta and himself. The lawsuits allege that Zuckerberg's inaction and actions caused children to become addicted to social media, alleging that Zuckerberg has ignored warnings that Instagram and Facebook were unsafe for children.

Zuckerberg's lawyers are arguing that individuals can't be held liable for the omissions or acts of a corporation merely based upon their status as shareholders, directors or corporate executives.

Executives are usually shielded from individual liability in corporate law. However, exceptions to this exist. Executives can be held liable in situations involving criminal acts or noncompliance which is grossly negligent or intentional. Executives can also be held liable when third parties file lawsuits against CEOs over actions that the CEOs personally took.

New York City, its public hospital system and its schools announced that a lawsuit has been filed against the tech companies running Youtube, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, alleging that the "addictive and dangerous" platforms they run are fueling a mental health crisis in children which is draining resources and disrupting learning.

The lawsuit alleges that children are especially susceptible to being harmed by social media due to having brains which are not yet developed fully.

The lawsuit alleges that, because of social media platforms, the city's school district has needed to respond to disruptions outside of and inside the classroom, give students counseling for depression and anxiety, and develop lessons about how to stay safe on the internet and social media's effects.

The lawsuit alleges that teens are aware they spend too much time using social media but aren't able to stop.

Documents which were recently unredacted from a lawsuit filed by New Mexico against Meta demonstrate Meta’s “historical reluctance” to protect children on its social media platforms, according to the complaint. The attorney general for New Mexico sued Meta in December, alleging Meta didn’t protect young users from being exposed to child sex abuse material, allowing adults to solicit sexual imagery from them.

In passages from the lawsuit which were just unredacted, presentations and internal employee messages from 2020 and 2021 demonstrate Meta knew about issues like adult strangers contacting children on Instagram, dangers related to the platform’s “people you may know” feature which can recommend connections between children and adults, and that minors were being sexualized on the platform. However, the passages show that Meta delayed addressing these issues.

The complaint alleges that Meta reasoned it didn’t want to block relatives and parents from reaching out to younger relatives.

One excerpt from the lawsuit alleges that, in response to a question regarding what Meta was doing about child grooming, a Meta employee responded, “somewhere between zero and negligible. Child safety is an explicit non-goal this half.”

Meta, as well as other social media companies, have been ordered by a United States District Court judge to face claims that their negligence led to young people developing social media addiction and being harmed. The judge ruled that the platforms have certain features like image filters which can be treated like products. Parents had argued that the image filters can harm the mental health of young users via promotion of unrealistic standards of beauty. The judge ruled that the filters are not protected by the First Amendment because they're "neutral, non-expressive tools."

33 states have sued Meta Platforms Inc., alleging that the company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, delivered a personal rejection of a policy his company proposed to remove image filters from their social media platforms, filters which are known to damage mental health. The lawsuit also alleges that Meta conducts unlawful collection of the personal data of children under the age of 13, falsely claims that their platforms are safe, and puts a priority on keeping children addicted to the platform via algorithms, infinite scrolling, constant alerts and other methods.

Senator Katie Britt has proposed legislation to protect children from social media. The proposed legislation, known as the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, seeks to prohibit children under the age of 13 from using social media and stop platforms from using algorithms to recommend content to minors. The legislation includes bipartisan co-sponsors.

Firms and attorneys sought leadership roles in the MDL, emphasizing the necessity of an organized approach to represent school districts and local governments against tech companies. Court documents revealed that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shot down proposals to protect teenage mental health.

More than 40 states initiated legal action against Meta over social media harm to children and teens.

Signaling the growing involvement of public institutions, various school districts filed lawsuits, now transferred to the MDL, highlighting the widespread concern about social media’s impact on youth mental health.

The instructing party directed the defendants to file any motions to dismiss by April, thereby establishing a critical juncture to test the core arguments against the social media companies.

A pivotal moment arrived when the MDL judge approved a master complaint, consolidating the various allegations into a unified legal front.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) consolidated around 80 cases involving teen addiction to social media into a class action MDL in the Northern District of California.

The JMPL initiated the transfer order, consolidating 28 cases from 17 different judicial districts into the MDL, a move typically preceding global settlement negotiations in mass tort cases.