A US appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against TikTok filed by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after taking part in a popular “blackout challenge” in which users of the social networking platform suffocate themselves. them until they pass out.

While a federal law generally shields Internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by users, a Philadelphia appeals court ruled yesterday that the law does not prevent Nyla Anderson’s mother from claiming that its algorithm TikTok recommended the challenge to her daughter.

Judge Patty Schwartz said Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996 only protects information provided by third parties, not the recommendations TikTok itself makes through an algorithm it runs on its platform.

“TikTok makes choices about what content it recommends and promotes to specific users, and by doing so it commits ‘first hand’ to its own discourse,” she pointed out.

TikTok has not responded to requests for comment.

Yesterday’s ruling overturns a court ruling dismissing under Section 230 the lawsuit filed by Tawaina Anderson against TikTok and its Chinese subsidiary ByteDance.

Anderson filed the lawsuit after her daughter Nyla died in 2021 when she attempted the blackout challenge, using the strap from a bag hanging in her mother’s closet.

“The big tech companies just lost their get out of jail free card,” Jeffrey Goodman, the mother’s attorney, said in a statement.