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The appeals court ruled Section 230 provides a liability defense, not immunity, making Meta's appeal premature
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Meta $META Platforms, Alphabet $GOOGL's Google, ByteDance's TikTok, and Snap $SNAP's Snapchat must face more than 3,000 federal lawsuits alleging they designed their platforms to addict young users, after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the companies' bid on Monday to reverse a lower court's ruling allowing the litigation to proceed, according to Reuters.
The appeals court, based in San Francisco, concluded the companies had moved prematurely by seeking review before the district court proceedings had run their course. Meta had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 — which generally shields online platforms from liability over user-posted content — granted it broad immunity, entitling the company to appeal immediately. The 9th Circuit rejected that argument, holding that Section 230 operates as a liability defense — not a shield against being sued in the first place — which meant the interlocutory appeal could not yet proceed.
