Clay Calvert

Those are the types of characteristics or features that she is claiming are defective and designed to hook minors.

So why is that difference important?

Here's why it's important.

If the harm was caused by the speech itself and not the alleged defects or features of the platform's

Then something called Section 230 immunity kicks in.

Section 230 is a federal statute that was adopted 30 years ago back in 1996.

Essentially what it does is it says that social media platforms are immune from civil liability for what we call third party content.

That means user generated content or content posted by others.

So if it's the content of others that she watched and caused her harm, she saw videos of people who were abnormally thin, whatever it is she's going to say in this case, if it was the content that caused her the harm, then Section 230 federal statute will kick in and provide immunity from civil liability for Google and Meta in this case.

On the other hand, if it's the features, right, those design features that cause the harm, and that's what she's arguing it is,

then there's a possibility that indeed Google and Meta will be held liable here for causing her the harm.

So the jury is going to have a really difficult case.

How do you parse out what really caused the harm?

And so causation is going to be a key question in these cases and in hers in particular.

That's very important here.

Essentially what the plaintiffs are attempting to do is plead around Section 230.

Section 230 has proven to be a very formidable barrier in terms of protecting social media platforms for liability based on the content of others posted, right?

So what plaintiff's attorneys have done here in this case and in other cases, they've tried to find end runs or theories around that.

So by focusing on the product itself, and there's a question really here, are social media platforms really products or are they services?

And what the judge in Los Angeles has done is she says, we're going to allow negligence causes of action to go forward, that these platforms were negligently designed.