The Courts Just Sent Big Tech a Message: Cases Are Going to Trial

Publish Date : 08/11/2026

For years, social media companies have argued they shouldn’t be held responsible for the harm allegedly caused by their platforms. Argued users make their own choices, parents are responsible for setting limits, the platforms are simply places where people interact.

However, recently, one of the nation’s most important federal courts said the lawsuits can move forward.

In a significant decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allowed more than 3,000 lawsuits against Meta, Google (YouTube), ByteDance (TikTok), Snap, and other social media companies to continue. The lawsuits allege these companies deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive, particularly for children and teenagers, contributing to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, and other serious mental health injuries.

The ruling does not decide whether the companies are liable, but it does something almost as important. It allows thousands of families to continue presenting their evidence, marking another major turning point in the growing wave of social media addiction litigation.

This Isn’t About Individual Posts

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding these lawsuits is they are about harmful content posted by users.

They are not.

Instead, the lawsuits focus on the design of the platforms themselves.

Parents and young users allege these companies intentionally built products around features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, algorithmic recommendations, variable rewards, push notifications, and personalized content feeds. These features are allegedly designed to maximize engagement and keep users online for longer periods of time.

The allegation is straightforward:

The platforms weren’t merely designed to entertain.

They were allegedly engineered to capture attention, prolong use, and increase advertising revenue.

That distinction has become increasingly important in courtrooms across the country.

The Companies Tried to End the Cases Early

The technology companies sought to have the Ninth Circuit to stop the litigation before trial.

Among other arguments, they relied on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law which generally protects online platforms from being held liable for content created by third-party users.

For years, Section 230 has served as one of Big Tech’s strongest legal defenses.

But the Ninth Circuit concluded the companies’ appeal was premature and allowed the litigation to continue, noting Section 230 provides a potential defense, not blanket immunity from every lawsuit.

That ruling means the courts will continue examining what these companies allegedly designed, not what users posted.

The Momentum Continues to Build

The Ninth Circuit’s decision did not happen in isolation.

Over the past year, courts around the country have increasingly refused to dismiss social media addiction claims.

Jurors have already returned verdicts against some companies.

State attorneys general have filed sweeping lawsuits.

School districts, families, and individual users continue filing new claims at a rapid pace.

In California alone, thousands of personal injury lawsuits have been consolidated in federal court. Similar claims have been filed by states across the country, alleging social media companies knowingly place children at risk via the design of their products.

Why This Decision Matters

Every major mass tort reaches a point where the question changes.

Early on, the issue is whether plaintiffs even have viable legal claims.

Later, the question becomes what the evidence will ultimately show.

This decision moves the litigation further into the second phase.

Instead of asking whether families should have their day in court, judges are increasingly allowing juries to decide whether companies acted reasonably in designing products used by millions of children.

That is a significant shift, because once discovery continues and cases move toward trial, internal company documents, executive testimony, scientific evidence, and design decisions receive far greater scrutiny.

A Familiar Pattern

We’ve seen this before.

Tobacco litigation.

Opioid litigation.

Juul.

Medical devices.

At first, companies argue products are safe when used properly.

They emphasize personal responsibility.

They seek dismissal before juries could hear the evidence.

Eventually, many of those cases proceeded to trial.

No two industries are identical, but the legal progression often follows a familiar path.

Social media litigation increasingly appears to be following the same path.

The Bigger Question

Social media has become part of everyday life; this fact has never been disputed.

The question being asked in these lawsuits is different.

If companies intentionally studied human behavior, if they designed algorithms to maximize engagement, if they knew children were especially vulnerable to compulsive use, what responsibility do they have when those design choices allegedly contribute to foreseeable harm?

Those are no longer merely academic questions.

They are questions thousands of families, and courts, are asking. Most importantly, these questions might be asked, and then eventually answered, by juries.

The Bottom Line

The Ninth Circuit did not decide the social media companies are liable.

It decided something equally important:

The allegations deserve to be heard, and eventually decided by, a jury.

For thousands of families who believe addictive platform design contributed to devastating mental health injuries, the fight continues.

And as more courts allow these cases to proceed, one thing is becoming increasingly clear:

The conversation is no longer about whether social media can be harmful.

It is becoming about whether those harms were foreseeable, and whether the harms could have been prevented.

McSweeney / Langevin

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