TikTok not liable for Philadelphia girl, 10, who died trying viral ‘blackout challenge,’ court finds
TikTok has said it found no evidence of 'blackout challenge' trending on platform
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TikTok is protected from a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the social media company of promoting a "blackout challenge" that led to the death of a 10-year-old Philadelphia girl, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Nylah Anderson died in December while attempting the "blackout challenge" on social media app TikTok, the girl’s family has said. The family has claimed the challenge, which is to choke oneself long enough to lose consciousness, was spread through videos on the platform.
U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia dismissed the lawsuit on Tuesday, ruling that TikTok was immune under a part of the federal Communications Decency Act, Reuters reported. The act protects entities that publish the work of others.
"The wisdom of conferring such immunity is something properly taken up with Congress, not the courts," Diamond wrote in his ruling, according to the report.
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TikTok has disputed that the "blackout challenge" was a TikTok "trend." (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
TikTok did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the ruling.
TikTok has disputed that the "blackout challenge" was a TikTok "trend," previously saying that it did not find evidence that such content trended on the platform and that content promoting dangerous behavior would violate its community guidelines.
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"This disturbing ‘challenge,’ which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend," a company spokesperson said at the time the lawsuit was filed in May. "We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss."
A U.S. District Court judge in Philadelphia wrote that the "wisdom of onferring such immunity" is to be taken up with Congress, not the courts. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File / Reuters Photos)
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The family’s lawyer, Jeffrey Goodman, said in a statement obtained by the outlet that the family would "continue to fight to make social media safe so that no other child is killed by the reckless behavior of the social media industry."
Fox Business' Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.