A group of Ontario school boards mounting a legal fight against Meta, Snapchat and TikTok says a judge has dismissed the social media giants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuits.
Since March 2024, 14 Ontario school boards and individual schools have initiated suits against the social media companies, alleging the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn.
Schools for Social Media Change, the group of plaintiffs, says the court’s denial of the tech giants’ motion for dismissal means the case can proceed to trial.
Among the plaintiffs are some of the province’s largest school boards, including the public and Catholic school boards in Toronto and Ottawa.
The suits make a slew of allegations about how negligently designed social media platforms have disrupted the education system at the expense of students’ well-being, causing schools to use their resources to address the fallout.
The allegations in the lawsuits have not been proven in court and Meta, Snapchat and TikTok have all said that they’re committed to teens’ well-being.
Together, the plaintiffs are seeking several billion dollars’ worth of damages.