(Newsworthy.news) – A lawsuit arguing that a widely used social media platform enables drug dealers to poison young Americans has been allowed to move forward.
On January 3, Judge Lawrence Riff of the Los Angele Superior Court ruled that a lawsuit filed by parents of deceased children against Snap—the parent company of the social media platform Snapchat—will be heard in court. This decision comes after Snap made an effort to dismiss the lawsuit in October 2023.
The lawsuit from families of over 60 young people alleges that Snap and Snapchat are responsible for dozens of teenagers buying fentanyl through the platform and subsequently overdosing, in many cases fatally. The company has been accused of several things, including negligence and wrongful death.
In October 2022, an initial complaint was filed in the suit which alleges that Snapchat’s feature called “disappearing message” enabled the buying and selling of fentanyl involving minors. Extended allegations issued in April 2023 further specified that the platform and its parent company are guilty of instituting certain “designs, structures, and policies” that led to the “foreseeable results” of illegal drug business and youth overdoses.
The parents also argued that the organization established the risky policies “to increase its revenues.” They said that the “disappearing messages” feature on Snapchat permitted illegal actions of users to remain hidden.
The attorney for the group of plaintiffs, Matthew Bergman, noted that the ongoing lawsuit is the first of its kind that accuses a social media organization of having “facilitated illegal and fatal drug sales.”
Ashley Adams, a spokesperson for Snap, told NBC in a statement that Snapchat’s parent company is “working diligently” to prevent illegal drug activity from taking place on its platform, including protocol of blocking drug-related search results.
Adams also emphasized the company’s determination to fight what it describes as “legally and factually flawed” allegations from the parents. Snap is reportedly ready to face off with the plaintiffs in court.
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