A Massachusetts trial court judge denied TikTok's motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which alleges that the social media platform is intentionally designed to be addictive and harmful to young users and that the company misrepresents its safety to the public. The ruling rejected TikTok's argument that it is shielded from such lawsuits by Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, meaning the company must now face the charges in state court. The case mirrors one the state is pursuing against Meta over Instagram, where the same Suffolk Superior Court Justice Peter B. Krupp previously ruled (and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed last month) that Section 230 does not shield platforms from lawsuits relating to design features alleged to harm children's mental health. Massachusetts is targeting specific TikTok features including push notifications, infinite scroll, autoplay, visible social validation metrics, and time-maximizing algorithms, citing internal documents that allegedly show management was aware of the negative effects on users but pushed forward for profit.
