Seattle public schools blame tech giants for social media harm in lawsuit

FILE PHOTO: Facebook and TikTok apps are seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) -Seattle's public school district filed a lawsuit against Big Tech claiming that the companies were responsible for a worsening mental health crisis among students and directly affected the schools' ability to carry out their educational mission.

The complaint, filed on Friday against Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Snap Inc and TikTok-owner ByteDance with the U.S. District Court, claimed they purposefully designed their products to hook young people to their platforms and were creating a mental health crisis.