Canada school boards sue social platforms for disrupting education

Ottawa: Four of Canada s largest school boards have launched lawsuits accusing social media platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok of disr...

Ottawa: Four of Canada's largest school boards have launched lawsuits accusing social media platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok of disrupting student learning, they said Thursday.

Local education authorities in the United States have also filed similar lawsuits in recent months, including a Maryland school district that sued Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta as well as TikTok parent company ByteDance for their role in a "mental health crisis" among young people. This is the first such suit in Canada.

The three Toronto boards and one in Ottawa filed separate statements of claim with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking at least Can$4 billion (US$3 billion) from the companies behind the popular apps -- Meta, Snap and ByteDance.

They also urged the companies to redesign their apps to be less addictive.

The Toronto District School Board accused the companies of having "negligently designed and marketed addictive products" that are "rewiring the way that (students) think, act, behave and learn."