US appeals court allows thousands of lawsuits against social media companies over user addiction claims to proceed

A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, ByteDance’s TikTok, and other social media companies over claims they designed their products to be addictive to young users.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of ​Appeals rejected the companies’ bid to reverse a lower court’s ruling forcing them to face some 2,400 lawsuits over the claims filed in federal court.