Burke on Social Media, Products Liability, and Section 230

Caitlin Burke has posted to SSRN Section 230, Design Defects, and the New Litigation Over Platform Harms. The abstract provides:

Can social media platforms be treated as products rather than merely as publishers of speech? This article examines the emerging intersection of Section 230, products liability law, design defects, and adolescent social media addiction through an empirical study of the MDL case In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation. Using thematic content analysis, the article analyzes seventy individual complaints brought against companies including Meta, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube to identify how plaintiffs translated harms associated with algorithms, interfaces, notifications, recommendation systems, image filters, and other platform features into the language of products liability.

The article argues that this litigation reveals an important doctrinal pathway around the traditional Section 230 framework. By separating the architecture of a digital product from the speech it transmits, plaintiffs made otherwise intangible software design legally cognizable as a potential source of physical and psychological harm. The resulting litigation suggests a broader role for tort law and products liability in regulating social media platforms, algorithms, and other networked software products, including emerging AI systems.