Enlarge (credit: Catherine McQueen | Moment)
An appeals court has revived a lawsuit against TikTok by reversing a lower court's ruling that Section 230 immunity shielded the short video app from liability after a child died taking part in a dangerous "Blackout Challenge."
Several kids died taking part in the “Blackout Challenge," which Third Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz described in her opinion as encouraging users "to choke themselves with belts, purse strings, or anything similar until passing out."
Because TikTok promoted the challenge in children's feeds, Tawainna Anderson counted among mourning parents who attempted to sue TikTok in 2022. Ultimately, she was told that TikTok was not responsible for recommending the video that caused the death of her daughter Nylah.
Rolling Stone has a long investigative story (non-paywalled version here) about a CIA agent who spent years posing as an Islamic radical.
Unrelated, but also in the “real life spies” file: a fake Sudanese diving resort run by Mossad.