Lemmon v. Snap, Inc.

Issue: Whether § 230(c)(1) bars a negligent design products liability claim against Snap for creating a "Speed Filter" feature that allegedly incentivized users to drive at dangerously high speeds by displaying their real-time speed and rewarding high-speed posts.

On May 28, 2017, three young men — Jason Davis (17), Hunter Morby (17), and Landen Brown (20) — were driving along Cranberry Road in Walworth County, Wisconsin. Shortly before the crash, Landen opened Snapchat and used its "Speed Filter" feature, which superimposed the user's real-time GPS speed onto a photograph or video that could then be posted to the app. The boys' car reached speeds of as fast as 123 miles per hour. They eventually ran off the road at approximately 113 mph and crashed into a tree; the car burst into flames and all three died. The surviving parents of Morby and Brown sued Snap, alleging it had negligently designed Snapchat's Speed Filter — specifically the interplay between the filter and the app's reward system, which encouraged users to post high-speed snaps. Snap moved to dismiss, arguing § 230 barred the claims because the Speed Filter displayed and transmitted third-party content (the snaps themselves). The Ninth Circuit reversed dismissal in an opinion by Judge Wardlaw. Applying the Barnes v. Yahoo! three-part test, the court held that the parents' claims did not treat Snap as a "publisher or speaker" of third-party content. The claims treated Snap as a products manufacturer whose negligent design of Snapchat — specifically the Speed Filter — created a dangerous product. The duty allegedly violated arose from Snap's distinct role as a product designer, entirely independent of any editorial decisions about user content. The court declined to address whether the complaint adequately pleaded causation, reversing and remanding for further proceedings.

The Ninth Circuit's leading decision establishing that § 230 does not immunize a platform from products liability claims targeting the design of the platform's own features. The design-defect claim targets what the platform built — not what users post — and therefore falls outside § 230's scope. Lemmon is the foundational precedent for the wave of social media design-defect litigation, including cases involving fentanyl trafficking on Snapchat, TikTok's Blackout Challenge, and youth mental health harms from social media features.