A local school board is suing several social media giants for disrupting student learning with what they call ‘addictive’ platforms.
The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board accuses the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat of disrupting student learning with ‘addictive’ platforms.
It joins several other boards that launched lawsuits against social media companies since March 2024, alleging the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn.
The board’s education director, Fil Lettieri, says they have joined the mass tort litigation because they are committed to the success of their students and believe that safer products are needed.
He says the board claims $70 million in damages in their statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court last week.
The board oversees 19 schools in the Algoma and Sudbury districts.
For more information about the issues involved, most of the school boards that have taken legal action are now part of a group at https://schoolsforsocialmediachange.ca/.
The group is described as a collective comprised of “school boards, schools, thought leaders, and organizations working together to demand accountability from social media tech giants to strengthen the education system,” according to the website.
The school boards are collectively seeking more than $8 billion in damages from the tech giants.
A motion for dismissal filed by the lawyers for the social media companies was struck down in court earlier this year, paving the way for the case to proceed to trial.
