A federal appeals court refused to dismiss thousands of lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat, allowing complaints alleging the platforms were designed to be addictive to young users to move forward.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Meta and TikTok attempting to overturn a lower court ruling requiring the firms to face more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in federal court, ruling the companies appealed too early.
The social media companies claimed that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 — which generally shields online platforms from being liable for content posted by their users — also prohibits lawsuits on allegations they failed to warn the public about the addictive design of their platforms.
Section 230 has largely protected several companies from lawsuits regarding content posted on their platforms.
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Most appeals come after a case has reached a ruling or a verdict, but the companies claimed that they should not have to wait until the litigation wraps up to challenge the lower court's rejection of their immunity defense.
However, the court ruled the companies cannot use Section 230 to dismiss lawsuits, saying it can only be used as a liability defense against claims, meaning the appeal was premature.
The statute "merely provides a defense to liability — not immunity from suit," Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote.
The court's decision clears the way for lawsuits alleging social media companies designed platforms to encourage addictive behavior, failed to verify users' ages and did not adequately block harmful content.
The panel also denied Meta's attempt to postpone a trial set to begin on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by 29 state attorneys general accusing the company of illegally collecting and using children's data, designing its social media platforms to addict young users and misleading consumers about child safety on the platforms.
The company had claimed that the trial could not move forward while the appeal was pending.
Fox Business reached out to Meta and TikTok for comment.
Attorneys representing thousands of school districts and people suing Meta and other tech firms in federal court, said in a statement the ruling would allow the states' trial to move forward, as well as a trial over claims brought by school districts set for February.
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"A trial is how the public finds out what Meta knew about its products' impact on children, when it knew it, and what it chose to do with that knowledge," the attorneys said. "Meta has fought to keep that evidence from the public."
This comes after a New Mexico judge last week found Meta had created a public nuisance in the state, ordering it to pay $567 million into a teenage mental health fund and adopt youth-safety measures.
In March, a jury in California ruled against Meta and Google's YouTube, while a jury in New Mexico ruled against Meta on child safety risks.
Reuters contributed to this report.