Tech Giants Must Face Lawsuits Over Alleged Harm to Minors, Judge Rules

The ruling rejects claims of immunity under the First Amendment and Section 230, allowing hundreds of cases to proceed.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that major tech companies including Meta, Google, ByteDance and Snap must face lawsuits alleging their social media platforms are addictive and harmful to children and teenagers.
The judge rejected the companies' arguments that they are immune from such lawsuits under the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The lawsuits allege that the companies' platforms have design defects such as lack of effective parental controls, insufficient age verification, and complicated account deletion processes.
The ruling allows hundreds of individual cases and over 140 actions taken by school districts against these companies to proceed.
The decision represents a significant interpretation of the limits of Section 230, a law that has historically protected online platforms from lawsuits arising from user-generated content.