According to the ruling documents acquired by Bloomberg Law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, shows that TikTok is protected from publishing third-party content.

“Nylah Anderson’s death was caused by her attempt to take up the ‘Blackout Challenge,’” Judge Paul S. Diamond wrote in a memorandum on Tuesday. 

“Defendants did not create the Challenge; rather, they made it readily available on their site. Defendants’ algorithm was a way to bring the Challenge to the attention of those likely to be most interested in it. In thus promoting the work of others, Defendants published that work—exactly the activity Section 230 shields from liability. The wisdom of conferring such immunity is something properly taken up with Congress, not the courts. I will thus grant Defendants’ Motion on immunity grounds. In light of my decision, I need not address Defendants’ contentions respecting jurisdiction and failure to state a claim,” Diamond concluded.

As reported by Law & Crime, the complaint stated that 10-yr-old Nylah took part in the “Blackout Challenge” on Dec. 7, 2021, in her home.  Regrettably, the child asphyxiated herself, and her mother, Tawainna Anderson, discovered her hanging from a purse strap in a bedroom.  Her mother then rushed her to the hospital where Nylah succumbed to her injuries, days later, on Dec. 12 after fighting for her life in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Reuters reported that Jeffrey Goodman, the attorney for the child’s mother would continue to fight, along with her family to make social media safe so that no other child is killed or hurt by the reckless behavior of the social media industry.

No mother should have to bury her child and now, while having to grieve her own, Mrs. Anderson is determined to make a change.

The “Blackout Challenge” is also known as the “Choking Challenge”, or “Pass-Out Challenge.  These are all incredibly dangerous and according to the CDC the craze goes back as far as 2008 when at least 82 children died as a result.

NBC News reported that searching for “Blackout Challenge” on TikTok now sends users to a page that stresses the danger of some of these online challenges.

PEOPLE stated that a spokesperson for TikTok affirmed that the organization will remain “vigilant” towards anything unsafe that users come across.

Back in a December report, Tawainna spoke with WPVI and shared that Nylah was a happy child.

“She was a butterfly,” she said. “She was everything. She was a happy child,” added the grieving mother.

We send our deepest condolences to the Anderson family and the friends of Nylah.