CNN —Major social media companies must face allegations that their services addicted teen users and caused other mental health harms after a federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion to dismiss the bellwether lawsuit filed by a wave of consumer plaintiffs. The ruling paves the way for hundreds of plaintiffs to continue their case against the tech companies, and could indirectly lift the prospects for a bevy of similar suits filed by dozens of state attorneys general last month against Meta. “Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement. Gonzalez Rogers said Tuesday that Section 230 does shield the tech platforms from claims that try to hold the companies accountable as publishers of other users’ speech. For example, she said, the companies will not have to face claims they violated the law by implementing infinite news feeds or by using algorithms to increase user engagement.

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Persons: Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Gonzalez Rogers, TikTok didn’t, ” José, ” Lexi Hazam, Previn Warren, Chris Seeger Organizations: CNN, Google, Communications, Meta, YouTube