The mother of Nylah Anderson, a 10-year-old girl who died after attempting the so-called “blackout challenge” (an internet trend based around the choking game), filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, over the social media company’s role in the young girl’s death. The suit alleged that the platform algorithmically promoted videos to a minor, related to the “blackout challenge,” and that TikTok knew of the harmful content and failed to take necessary corrective action. On Aug. 27, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s decision, based in part on the recent Supreme Court NetChoice decision, which argued that “platforms engage in protected first-party speech under the First Amendment when they curate compilations of others’ content via their expressive algorithms,” thus making algorithms subject to liability.
Fordham Law Professor Olivier Sylvain spoke with The Capitol Forum how the recent Third Circuit ruling is likely to have an impact even if it’s overturned by an en banc ruling.
