Meta Platforms, TikTok, Google, and Snap have just lost one of the most consequential court battles they have faced in years over how their platforms affect young users. On Monday, August 10, 2026, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed Meta and TikTok's attempt to overturn a lower court ruling and let more than 3,000 lawsuits, currently consolidated in a federal multidistrict litigation in California, move forward. The suits, brought by school districts, state attorneys general, families, and individual young users, accuse the social media giants of intentionally designing addictive products that contributed to youth mental health harms including anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and self-harm. The tech companies had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 the law that generally shields online platforms from liability for content posted by their users should also protect them from failure-to-warn claims about the addictive design...