The Seattle city school district filed a novel lawsuit blaming Big Tech for poisoning youth with social media addiction, saying the schools can’t fulfill their educational mission while students are suffering from anxiety, depression and other psychological troubles.
Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Snap and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, are responsible for hooking young people on their platforms and creating a mental health crisis, according to the complaint filed late Friday in Seattle federal court. The district includes more than 100 schools and serves about 50,000 children.
The suit appears to be the first of its kind in the U.S. brought by a school district, following similar claims filed last year by scores of families, including more than a dozen blaming the tech companies for suicides.
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