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In March 2024, the Toronto District School Board commenced a lawsuit against three social media companies – Meta (operating Facebook and Instagram), ByteDance (operating TikTok) and Snap (operating Snapchat) on the basis that they negligently designed their products to distract student-age children to disrupt the education system and causing a public nuisance.
On or about February 26, 2025, the Defendants brought a motion to strike the action on the basis that it was plain and obvious the claim could not succeed.
On March 7, 2025, Justice Leiper released her decision to dismiss the motion of the social media companies. Instead, Justice Leiper’s decision allowed the TDSB and other school boards to continue to fight to seek accountability from the Defendants.
Justice Leiper recognized that the interference with the student’s education could potentially constitute a public nuisance requiring a legal remedy. Justice Leiper went a step further and decided that it was not plain and obvious that the TDSB did not have a claim for public nuisance for the special damage sit suffered from the Defendants products damaging access to public education.
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