ANALYSIS: Schools Repurpose Juul Claims Against Meta, TikTok

Two Washington school districts filed separate lawsuits against major social media platforms this month in an ostensibly novel attempt to put a halt to the deteriorating mental health of their students.

The Seattle and Kent school districts filed the suits against several companies including Meta, Tiktok, and YouTube in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, pursuing an innovative claim: They allege that the social media platforms, through their harmful and exploitative marketing and operational practices, violated the state’s public nuisance law by creating a mental health crisis in the school districts.

The school districts ...