Aug 5, 2026
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Add us on GoogleIt’s one TikTok trend the company would likely rather avoid: a growing wave of lawsuits from victims, families, states and school boards alleging its algorithms, and those of other social media companies like YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, harm young users.
In fact, while other social media companies have faced — or are set to face — personal injury trials this year, TikTok has settled every such 2026 case against it so far.
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That includes three settled cases this week alleging social media platforms contributed to depression, anxiety, addiction and self-harm in plaintiffs aged 15 to 18. Those lawsuits will still proceed against YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat in October.
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TikTok and Snapchat also settled a social media addiction case scheduled for trial in February. In that case, Google, the parent company of YouTube, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, paid a $6 million judgment. The fifth settlement involved a lawsuit that had been scheduled for July before the plaintiff later settled it.
California alone has about 3,300 social media injury cases on its docket, while federal courts are handling another 2,600. And settlements, as one observer put it, carry no precedent for financial payouts or admissions of wrongdoing, meaning “ the confidential cheque is the cheaper risk.”
That could prove especially true if this is, as some legal observers contend, social media’s “big tobacco” moment.
“Like tobacco companies in the ’90s, social media companies are being accused of selling products engineered to be addictive without disclosing the risks,” Lindsay Sain Jones and Tim Samples of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business Legal Studies wrote. “Critics argue that social media companies know their platforms are addictive and harmful to mental health, particularly for young people.”
Bellwether trials could reshape the legal battle over social media
TikTok did settle one case this year: a $27 million lawsuit brought by Kentucky’s Breathitt County school district. TikTok contributed $8 million as part of a settlement shared with Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube.
The October cases, meanwhile, are being billed as bellwether trials, which allow for plaintiffs and defendants to test their arguments before the courts and could help shape the direction of future litigation.
Neither TikTok nor Meta returned Moneywise’s request for comment about the social lawsuits.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda, however, told Moneywise in an email that the “allegations in these complaints are simply not true” and that “in collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls.”
Snapchat responded by focusing on how its interface is interacted with by users.
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“Snapchat was designed differently from traditional social media — it opens to the camera, not a feed, and has no social comparison metrics. Our goal has always been to encourage self-expression and authentic connections,” A Snap Company spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’ve built safeguards, launched safety tutorials, partnered with experts, and continue to invest in features and tools that support the safety, privacy, and well-being of all Snapchatters.”
Social media companies have also argued that they are protected by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which provides broad, though not unlimited, legal protections for providers of “interactive computer services” over content posted by third parties.
Sain Jones and Samples, meanwhile, said recent lawsuits argue companies intentionally designed addictive features while failing to disclose known risks.
One case, spotlighted by Bloomberg, alleged a 16-year-old boy died by suicide after TikTok’s algorithm repeatedly served him videos about suicide while his account was part of an experimental control group in which safeguards were added, but not switched on in his case. A judge later dismissed the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.
TikTok told Bloomberg, “Our hearts break for any family that experiences a tragic loss,” adding that the company plans to continue investing in safeguards for its platform.”
[a]It’s technically every personal injury trial that TikTok has settled, which includes addition. But the trials also allege self-harm, anxiety, eating disorders, etc. So “personal injury” may be more accurate.
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Mike Crisolago is a Sr. Staff Reporter at Moneywise with nearly 20 years of experience working as a journalist, editor, content strategist and podcast host. He specializes in personal finance writing related to the 50-plus demographic and retirement, as well as politics and lifestyle content.
