A U.S. appeals court has allowed thousands of lawsuits against Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, ByteDance’s TikTok and Snap Inc’s Snapchat to move forward over claims that the companies designed their products to be addictive to young users.
Most appeals are filed after a case has concluded with a ruling or verdict. However, the companies argued that they should not have to wait until the litigation ends to challenge the lower court’s rejection of their immunity defense.
The 9th Circuit said Section 230 provides a defense to liability, not immunity from lawsuits, and therefore ruled that the appeal was premature.
Both Meta and Google, which have denied the claims in those cases, said they would appeal.
