Canadian schools seek damages from TikTok and Snapchat for their impact on students. Establishments accuse these platforms designed for “compulsive use” of disrupting student learning and security.
This is the first time that such an approach has been undertaken in Canada. Across the border, American schools launched the same lawsuits in 2023. This complaint targets Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, the Chinese Tik Tok and its parent company Byte Dance, but also Snap which owns Snapchat. “Social media companies should be held accountable for their negligence and the harm they have caused to our schools and our community as a whole,” says Duncan Embury, litigation manager for the Ottawa-Carleton school group.