Ninth Circuit denies Meta, TikTok early exit in addiction lawsuits

Meta and TikTok failed to secure an early appellate ruling that could have halted a major wave of social media addiction lawsuits. The Ninth Circuit dismissed their appeals on August 10 as premature, leaving thousands of cases against major platforms moving forward in lower courts. The ruling does not decide whether Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ultimately protects the companies from liability. Instead, it determines that Meta and TikTok cannot use the statute at this stage to obtain immediate appellate review and avoid continuing to defend the litigation.

The appeals challenged lower-court rulings that largely allowed lawsuits to proceed, including People of the State of California v. Meta Platforms. Meta and TikTok argued Section 230 should shield them before cases advanced further, but the Ninth Circuit treated Section 230 as an affirmative defense to liability rather than a categorical right to avoid being sued. Plaintiffs are trying to separate their claims from third-party content by arguing that platform design features intended to increase engagement can themselves be harmful. That argument remains unresolved. Notably, the broader litigation has produced varying outcomes: in March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable and awarded $6 million, while TikTok and Snap settled before that trial, and Meta avoided a July trial when a plaintiff dropped claims. For now, companies must keep defending cases, and the harder legal question of whether design claims bypass Section 230 will return to appellate courts after final lower-court decisions.