In a poignant legal battle, a grieving mother implores a U.S. appeals court to revive her lawsuit against the popular video-based social media giant, TikTok. The heart-wrenching case revolves around the death of a 10-year-old girl who fell victim to the perilous allure of a TikTok-promoted “blackout challenge,” prompting a reevaluation of the platform’s accountability.
A three-judge panel at the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals engaged in a complex debate, scrutinizing whether TikTok can be held liable for the tragic incident. While acknowledging the protective shield typically afforded to internet companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, judges expressed reservations about its applicability to platforms like TikTok, which not only host content but actively recommend it through sophisticated algorithms.
During the oral arguments, U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Matey remarked, “I think we can all probably agree that this technology didn’t exist in the mid-1990s, or didn’t exist as widely deployed as it is now.”
The lawsuit was filed by Tawainna Anderson against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, after her daughter Nylah succumbed to injuries sustained during the blackout challenge in 2021. Anderson’s attorney, Jeffrey Goodman, contended that while Section 230 provides some legal insulation to TikTok, it should not preclude claims that the platform’s algorithm facilitated the distribution of dangerous content to the young victim.
Goodman asserted, “This was TikTok consistently sending dangerous challenges to an impressionable 10-year-old, sending multiple versions of this blackout challenge, which led her to believe this was cool and this would be fun.”
In response, TikTok’s lawyer, Andrew Pincus, urged the panel to uphold a lower court’s ruling, emphasizing that a contrary decision would undermine Section 230’s protections and open the floodgates to lawsuits against other platforms using content-curation algorithms.
U.S. Circuit Judge Patty Schwartz challenged the extent of protection Section 230 could provide, questioning whether TikTok could evade responsibility for disseminating potentially harmful content.
The legal clash occurs amidst mounting pressure on social media companies, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms, to safeguard children from harmful content. U.S. state attorneys general are actively investigating TikTok’s impact on the physical and mental well-being of young users, while a barrage of lawsuits accuses social media platforms of enticing and addicting millions of children, causing harm to their mental health.
As the courtroom drama unfolds, the grieving mother’s plea for justice echoes, transcending the legal intricacies and delving into the broader debate over the responsibilities of social media platforms in protecting their vulnerable users.
