Social media companies strike out twice in Mississippi Supreme Court

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Two social media companies have come up short in the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Justices handed down two orders Thursday afternoon allowing the state’s lawsuits to continue against social media companies TikTok and Meta Platforms Technologies.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed suits against TikTok and its related companies in 2023. She sued the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, and its other related platforms in 2024.

The complaints argue, in part, the companies created programs that knowingly harm children and teens, and as a result, in violation of the state’s consumer protection laws.

“TikTok is conducting a dangerous experiment with our children’s developing minds and our children are suffering for it,” the attorney general said in an October 2024 news release. ”TikTok knows it maximizes profit by addicting children to its platform, and it knows that feeding them increasingly extreme and disturbing videos keep children hooked."

In its suit, the state described TikTok as “an addiction machine, targeting people under the age of 18 ... and more insidiously children under the age of 13... who, as [TikTok] well knows, have developmentally limited capacity for self control.”

TikTok filed a motion to dismiss arguing the state did not have grounds to sue under its consumer protection statute.

The company asked for an interlocutory appeal for the court to determine whether it was immune from the suit.

In the state’s 93-page amended complaint against Meta and its related companies, Fitch contends Facebook and Instagram are not safe for young users, pointing to instances of bullying seen and experienced on both.

“Meta’s unpublished internal surveys show that the incidence of bullying and harassing content is staggering, particularly among young users” with 11.9% of all users receiving “unwanted advances,” and 8.1% of users being the target of bullying, the complaint states.

Meta filed a motion to dismiss in February 2024, citing lack of jurisdiction.

Judge Tametrice Hodges-Lindzey denied the motion in November 2025, writing in part that the state does have jurisdiction under its “long arm statute.”

“In short, Meta conducts business in Mississippi by maintaining a virtual presence in Mississippi through its social platforms, which allow Meta to sell targeted advertising campaigns to businesses in Mississippi,” she wrote.

According to court records, internal metrics from the company showed an average of 273,000 Mississippi teens used Instagram daily from July 2020 to June 2021.

“In exchange for the right to use Facebook and/or Instagram, consumers agree to a host of terms that power Meta’s advertising business. This allows Meta to sell targeted advertisements specific to Mississippi and it allows businesses to target specific cities in Mississippi,” Hodges-Lindzey wrote. “By its plain terms, the statute applies to any corporation or person ‘who shall do any business or perform any character of work or service in this state.’”

Meta appealed the case to the Supreme Court in December. In its filing, Meta argues the state’s suit “conflicts with well-established First Amendment principles that protect publishers of third-party content not merely from liability, but from litigation itself.”

Both appeals were heard by the full court.

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