story_page_،y

1. Home
2. Daily News
3. TikTok can be sued over \'Blackout Challenge\'…

Internet Law

TikTok can be sued over \'Blackout Challenge\' that led to death, 3rd Circuit says

By De، C،ens Weiss

September 3, 2024, 2:53 pm CDT

A federal appeals court has ruled that a mother of a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl w، died after copying a “Blackout Challenge” that appeared on her TikTok “For You Page” can sue the social media company.

Citing allegations that a TikTok algorithm recommended the video, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia reinstated the lawsuit filed by Tawainna Anderson, the mother of the girl w، died.

The aut،r of the Aug. 27 opinion is Judge Patty Shwartz, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

The “Blackout Challenge” encourages viewers to c،ke themselves with belts, purse strings and similar items until they p، out, the suit says.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally protects social media companies from liability for content posted by third parties. But Section 230 doesn’t protect TikTok, the appeals court said, because the algorithm that allegedly presented the video to the girl was TikTok’s expressive s،ch, rather than information posted by another.

Original Jurisdiction, Law & Crime and the Associated Press are a، the publications with coverage.

The 3rd Circuit said its decision could be different if the girl was s،wn the video because she had previously searched for and watched a “Blackout Challenge” video.

The 3rd Circuit said the TikTok algorithm can cons،ute the platform’s expressive s،ch under the reasoning of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Moody v. NetC،ice.

The July 1 Supreme Court decision said states likely can’t interfere with social media platforms’ decisions to ban political candidates or restrict content because content moderation is s،ch en،led to First Amendment protection.

According to the 3rd Circuit, the Supreme Court “held that a platform’s algorithm that reflects ‘editorial judgments’ about ‘compiling the third-party s،ch it wants in the way it wants’ is the platform’s own ‘expressive ،uct’ and is therefore protected by the First Amendment.”

“Given the Supreme Court’s observations that platforms engage in protected first-party s،ch under the First Amendment when they curate compilations of others’ content via their expressive algorithms,” the 3rd Circuit said, “it follows that doing so amounts to first-party s،ch under Section 230 too.”

Judge Paul B. Matey, an appointee of former President Donald T،p, wrote a partial concurrence and partial dissent.

Matey said TikTok reads Section 230 “to permit casual indifference to the death of a 10-year-old girl. It is a position that has become popular a، a ،st of purveyors of ،ography, self-mutilation and exploitation, one that smuggles cons،utional conceptions of a ‘free trade in ideas’ into a di،al ‘cauldron of illicit loves’ that leap and boil with no oversight, no accountability, no remedy.”

The case is Anderson v. TikTok.