An appeals court in the United States has reopened a lawsuit against TikTok, filed by the mother of a 10-year-old girl. The young girl tragically passed away after participating in the widely shared “Blackout Challenge” on TikTok, which involves users strangling themselves until they lose consciousness.
According to reports from Reuters, while federal law typically protects internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by users, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled on Tuesday, August 27th that this law does not prevent Nylah Anderson’s mother from suing TikTok for recommending the “Blackout Challenge” to her daughter through its algorithm.
Federal Circuit Judge Patty Schwartz, speaking on behalf of a panel of three judges, stated that Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act only exempts information provided by third parties, not content generated by TikTok itself through its built-in algorithm.
She acknowledged that this ruling diverges from previous precedents set by her court and others. Past rulings have held that online platforms are not required to bear legal responsibility for failing to intercept harmful messages sent by users, based on Section 230.
However, she argued that since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in July regarding whether states can restrict social media platforms from moderating content they deem inappropriate, the previous arguments no longer hold water.
In these cases, the Supreme Court determined that algorithms used by platforms reflect “editorial judgment,” meaning they “edit third-party speech in the manner they desire.” Schwartz stated that by this logic, content editing through algorithms is the company’s own speech and not protected by Section 230.
“TikTok’s decision to recommend and promote specific content to certain users,” she wrote, “is essentially an expression of its own speech.”
Tuesday’s ruling overturned the lower court judge’s decision to dismiss Tawainna Anderson’s lawsuit against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance based on Section 230.
Her daughter Nylah tragically passed away in 2021 while attempting the “Blackout Challenge” using a purse strap hanging in the mother’s closet, after which Mrs. Anderson filed the lawsuit.
The mother’s lawyer Jeffrey Goodman stated in a release, “Big tech companies have just lost their ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
Circuit Judge Paul Matey, in part concurring with Tuesday’s ruling, expressed in his opinion that TikTok, in “pursuing profit above all other values,” may choose to provide children with content that emphasizes “lowest common denominator taste” and “morally corrupt” material.
He wrote, “But it cannot demand the exemption Congress did not provide.”
Reuters contacted TikTok for comment, but there was no response.