Appeals court allows thousands of addiction lawsuits against Meta, Google, TikTok to proceed

For decades, a 1996 law served as a near-impenetrable shield for the architects of the digital world — but a federal appeals court in San Francisco has now ruled that a shield is not the same as armor. The 9th Circuit allowed more than 3,000 lawsuits to proceed against Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat, brought by families, schools, and states who argue that these platforms were engineered to addict young minds. The ruling does not decide guilt, but it insists the question must be asked — and that the asking itself may redefine the social contract between technology and the children who grow