USA – FLORIDA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Stuart Davidson and Nicolle Brito, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
speaker of any information provided by another infor - mation content provider.” Historically, courts interpreted this language broad - ly. In Zeran v America Online , Inc ., for example, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held: “Congress rec - ognized the threat that tort-based lawsuits pose to freedom of speech in the new and burgeoning Internet medium.” 129 F.3d 327, 330 (4th Cir. 1997). However, many recent court rulings have significantly narrowed the scope of Section 230 immunity where claims target platform design rather than third-party content. In Lemmon v Snap , Inc ., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Section 230 did not bar claims alleging Snap’s “Speed Filter” was defectively designed, drawing a critical distinction: “Snap ‘is being sued for the predictable consequenc - es of’ designing Snapchat in such a way that it alleg - edly encourages dangerous behavior. Section 230 does not shield Snap from liability for such claims.” 995 F.3d 1085, 1094 (9th Cir. 2021) (citation omitted). Other courts followed suit. See, eg, Anderson v Tik- Tok , Inc ., 116 F.4th 180, 184 (3d Cir. 2024) (finding no Section 230 immunity when a social media company “curate[s] compilations of others’ content via their expressive algorithms”); Doe v MG Freesites , LTD , 2024 WL 5339485, at *8-*11 (N.D. Ala. Dec. 19, 2024), motion to certify appeal denied sub nom., Doe # 1 v MG Freesites , LTD , 2025 WL 1314179 (N.D. Ala. May 6, 2025); Huckabee v Meta Platforms , Inc ., 2024 WL 4817657, at *4-*5 (D. Del. Nov. 18, 2024). In the MDL proceedings, Judge Gonzalez Rogers rejected blanket Section 230 immunity for claims focused on algorithmic design and engagement fea - tures, emphasising “[t]he defects pled as part of such allegations are not equivalent to speaking or publish - ing [but are manufacturing decisions that] can be fixed by defendants without altering the publishing of third-party content.” In re Soc . Media Adolescent Addiction / Pers . Inj . Prods . Liab . Litig ., 702 F. Supp. 3d 809, 829 (N.D. Cal. 2023) (emphasis in original); accord In re Soc . Media Adolescent Addiction / Pers . Inj . Prods . Liab . Litig ., 777 F. Supp. 3d 1016, 1022 (N.D. Cal. 2025) (“allegations relating to particular
features of defendants’ platforms [are not] barred by Section 230”) (emphasis in original). Taken together, these rulings reflect a developing judi - cial consensus: Section 230 does not categorically immunise platform design choices merely because they operate through content display. And, although the Supreme Court has not resolved the outer bound - aries of Section 230 immunity, several of the justices signalled during a recent oral argument their concern over extending immunity to algorithmic recommenda - tions by social media companies, see Transcript of Oral Argument at 17, 47, 49, Gonzalez v Google LLC , 598 U.S. 617 (2023) (No. 21-1333), and the Court has also found ‒ albeit in the First Amendment context ‒ that a platform’s algorithm reflects “editorial judg - ments” about “compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants” and is the platform’s own “expressive product.” Moody v NetChoice , LLC , 603 U.S. 707, 718, 731-32 (2024). Algorithmic Architecture as Product Design Many school districts characterise social media fea - tures such as infinite scroll, push notifications, vari - able reward systems, streak mechanisms, and AI- driven recommendations as a “casino that fits in your pocket,” a phrase coined by New York Times reporter Max Fisher in Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and The World (2022). Courts have increasingly accepted that such features can constitute product design elements sub - ject to ordinary negligence or strict liability analysis. As the Ninth Circuit explained in Lemmon , “[t]he duty to design a reasonably safe product is fully independent of Snap’s role in monitoring or publishing third-party content.” 995 F.3d at 1093. This distinction reframes social media platforms as engineered behavioural sys - tems rather than passive conduits. The analogy to tobacco litigation is not rhetorical. In Kerrivan v R . J . Reynolds Tobacco Co ., the court found that: “The Tobacco Companies knew that cigarettes were addictive and linked to serious health conditions. Despite this knowledge, they not only concealed and denied the adverse health effects of smoking, but they also deliberately designed their product to
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