TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’
www.theverge.com
It’s a significant data point on the potential limits of Section 230.

TikTok has to face a lawsuit from the mother of 10-year-old Nylah Anderson, who “unintentionally hanged herself” after watching videos of the so-called blackout challenge on her algorithmically curated For You Page (FYP). The “challenge,” according to the suit, encouraged viewers to “choke themselves until passing out.”

TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations on the FYP constitute the platform’s own speech, according to the Third Circuit court of appeals. That means it’s something TikTok can be held accountable for in court. Tech platforms are typically protected by a legal shield known as Section 230, which prevents them from being sued over their users’ posts, and a lower court had initially dismissed the suit on those grounds.

  • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
    49·
    3 months ago

    I am generally very skeptical of lawsuits making social media and other Internet companies liable for their users’ content, because that’s usually a route to censor whatever the government deems “harmful”, but I think this case actually makes perfect sense by attacking the algorithmic “curation” that they do. Imo social media should go back to being a purely chronological feed, curated by the users themselves, and cut corporate influence out of the equation.

    • Chahk@beehaw.org
      32·
      3 months ago

      social media should go back to being a purely chronological feed, curated by the users themselves, and cut corporate influence out of the equation.

      But then how would they make money if they can’t keep users doomscrolling forever to keep serving them ads? Won’t someone think of the shareholders?!

      • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
        14·
        3 months ago

        Yes, but that is not the entirety or even majority of the problem with algorithmic feed curation by corporations. Reducing visibility of those dumb challenges is one of many benefits.

      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
        5·
        3 months ago

        No it wouldn’t, but people would only see them if they were part of a preexisting community where such things are posted or they specifically looked for them.

        On the Internet, censorship happens by having too much information for our limited time and attention span, so going after recommendation algorithms will work.