backOn December 16th, 2025, King & Spalding secured a significant victory for our client TikTok, when U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed without leave to amend a closely-watched lawsuit challenging the companies’ content moderation practices – concluding that the claims were fundamentally flawed and largely blocked by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment.
Initially filed in 2023, the suit alleged that TikTok’s and YouTube’s reporting and content moderation tools were defectively designed because they did not result in the removal of content that the plaintiffs considered dangerous or harmful. Plaintiffs asserted product liability, negligence, misrepresentation, and state consumer protection claims, contending that by offering reporting mechanisms the platforms assumed an affirmative duty to proceed in a prescribed way.
In February of this year, Judge DeMarchi dismissed the plaintiffs’ original complaint with leave to amend, finding that they had failed to clearly identify a defective “product” or plausibly allege a design flaw. Plaintiffs then filed an amended complaint attempting to reframe their claims and at a July hearing on the renewed motions to dismiss, Judge DeMarchi signaled significant skepticism, indicating that many claims appeared likely barred by Section 230 and First Amendment protections for content moderation.
The December 16th, 2025, order dismissing the amended complaint in full—this time without leave to amend. Judge DeMarchi held that the plaintiffs’ amended complaint had the same fundamental flaws and concluded that the alleged harms stemmed from protected content moderation decisions, not from any actionable defects in the platforms’ services. Judge DeMarchi also rejected the negligence, and misrepresentation claims and the advocacy organization’s claims for lack of standing.
TikTok is represented by King & Spalding lawyers Geoff Drake, David Mattern, Bailey Langner and Rachel Yeung.