4 Ontario School Boards Suing Meta, Snapchat, TikTok for $4.5 Billion, Alleging Their Platforms Harm Students’ Mental Health

Four of the largest school boards in Canada have launched lawsuits totalling $4.5 billion against Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, accusing the social media titans of harming students’ mental health and disrupting the education system. The Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have filed four separate but similar cases in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. The March 27 filings accuse Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram of deliberately or “negligently” designing platforms that cause “compulsive use” among young people, effectively rewiring the way students “think, behave, and learn.” The statements of claim say the school boards have suffered “substantial damages” as a result and call on the social media firms to make improvements rather than “leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout.”...