In a recent development, Meta, Google, TikTok, and other social media companies have suffered a significant loss in a nationwide litigation involving hundreds of lawsuits filed by families. The ruling was delivered by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. According to Reuters, the judge’s decision held that social media companies were not shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants tech companies immunity from the actions of third parties.
The ruling specified that the applications had inadequate age verification and parental restrictions, failure to report predatory accounts, difficulty deleting accounts, and appearance-altering filters. Judge Rogers emphasized that the companies could have utilized age-verification technologies to notify parents when their children were online.
However, the court also ruled that the corporations had no legal duty to shield consumers from damage caused by other users of their platforms, thereby rejecting some of the plaintiffs’ claims. The ruling covers parent companies of major social media applications such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Alphabet (Google and Youtube), Bytedance (TikTok), and Snapchat.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of children who claimed to have suffered detrimental impacts on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being due to their usage of these social media applications. The impacts reportedly included suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. The litigation seeks damages and a stop to the alleged wrongdoings of the social media companies.
Alphabet Inc. and other companies have responded to the ruling, stating that they have built age-appropriate experiences for kids and families on their platforms and provide parents with robust controls. However, requests for comment from other companies and legal representatives went unanswered.
The judge’s ruling follows similar cases dismissed by Judge Carolyn Kuhl of Los Angeles County Superior Court and further complaints filed by school districts and states. This decision is a significant victory for the families affected by the harmful effects of social media, marking an important development in the ongoing litigation against major tech companies.
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