ANALYSIS: Tobacco’s Causation Logic Won’t Light Up Tech Cases

For mass tort plaintiffs in products liability suits, proving that chronic tobacco use causes harm was a relatively straightforward task. Not so for social media plaintiffs. They, like their tobacco predecessors, will have to clear two causation hurdles: general and specific. But the distinctive challenges that they’ll face at each turn were absent from Big Tobacco litigation, stretching the comparison between the two industries beyond its breaking point.

General Causation Up in the Air

When assessing general causation, courts ask: “Is this product capable of causing this particular injury or condition in the general population?”

For tobacco in the ‘90s, ...