Last year, a group of lawyers representing hundreds of school districts pulled off what many thought was an uphill battle. They squeezed a billion dollar settlement out of Juul using a centuries-old legal argument: that the e-cigarette startup was a “public nuisance,” a term for things that cause widespread harm. Now, some of those same firms are using the same argument to take on social media giants.
The suits – now approaching 50 filed on behalf of public school districts across several states since the beginning of the year against ByteDance, Snap, Meta, and Alphabet – argue that these companies’ social media platforms are exploiting children much in the same way that Juul allegedly targeted young students.
