Eugenia Cooney is not named as a plaintiff or a defendant in any lawsuit. Her name surfaces in legal filings because plaintiffs in a large federal case against social media companies pointed to her TikTok account as evidence, and a federal magistrate judge ordered TikTok to hand over certain internal records about her. The case is In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3047, pending in the Northern District of California before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.1Tech Policy Press. Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047)
The Case Where Her Name Appears
The MDL was established in October 2022 and consolidates claims against Meta, Google, ByteDance (TikTok), and Snap. Plaintiffs include children, parents, school districts, and attorneys general from more than 30 states. The core allegation is that the platforms were designed with features — algorithmic feeds, push notifications, infinite scrolling, appearance-altering filters — engineered to keep young users compulsively engaged, and that this compulsive use has caused anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicides.2FindLaw. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation More than 2,600 individual suits are pending in the MDL, with thousands more coordinated in California state court.3ConsumerNotice.org. Social Media Harm Lawsuit
Cooney is a TikTok creator with roughly 2.8 million followers who has faced years of public concern over her visibly emaciated appearance. She is a nonparty to the MDL. She has not been sued, and she has not sued anyone.
Why Plaintiffs Brought Her Into the Case
Plaintiffs described Cooney in filings as a creator “suffering from an obvious serious eating disorder,” and argued that TikTok’s internal handling of her account was evidence of what the company knew about harm to vulnerable users.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery If TikTok’s records showed the company was aware of user complaints about Cooney’s content and understood the potential effect on vulnerable viewers, plaintiffs argued, that awareness would weaken TikTok’s defense that it did not know its platform was harming minors.
During fact discovery, TikTok produced more than 300 documents referencing Cooney, user complaints about her content, and restrictions or changes the platform had applied to her account. The specific nature of those restrictions has not been made public.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery
The May 2025 Livestream and Office Visit
Two events in May 2025 drove the specific dispute. During a TikTok livestream, Cooney’s broadcast ended abruptly after she appeared to collapse and gag on camera, having told viewers she “wasn’t feeling great.”5Times of India. What Happened to Eugenia Cooney After Being AWOL in a Livestream Not long after, she visited TikTok’s offices in New York.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery
In September 2025, plaintiffs accused TikTok of withholding documents related to those two events, and moved to compel further production.6Law360. TikTok Accused of Withholding Docs on Anorexic Influencer They argued that TikTok’s internal communications around the livestream and the office visit could show what the company understood about harm to vulnerable users and whether it acted on that understanding.7Law Commentary. Judge Orders TikTok to Produce Internal Records in Social Media Addiction Lawsuit
What the Judge Ordered in October 2025
On October 20, 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter H. Kang granted the motion in part.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery He ordered TikTok to conduct a reasonable search for non-privileged documents tied to the two May 2025 events, limited to communications from employees involved in user safety, media inquiries, or complaint handling. The order covered two categories:
- Meeting agendas or materials concerning potential adverse impacts on user safety related to Cooney’s visit to TikTok’s New York offices.
- Internal communications concerning user safety, media inquiries, or user complaints arising from the livestream incident.
TikTok was required to serve supplemental responses by November 10, 2025, and complete production by December 4, 2025, with weekly progress updates starting in mid-November.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery
Judge Kang denied the broader requests. Plaintiffs had sought historical records reaching beyond May 2025, and that request was rejected. Plaintiffs also asked to depose Cooney herself. The court refused, noting that she is a private individual who has not appeared in the action and that no legal basis existed to compel her testimony under the rules the plaintiffs cited.7Law Commentary. Judge Orders TikTok to Produce Internal Records in Social Media Addiction Lawsuit A request for a further deposition of a TikTok corporate witness was denied as well.4GovInfo. In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, Order on Discovery
What This Is Not
No lawsuit has been filed naming Eugenia Cooney as a defendant, and she is not a plaintiff in the MDL or any related action. The claims target the platforms’ design choices and corporate conduct, not individual content creators, with plaintiffs’ attorneys arguing that features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations amount to product defects under theories of design defect, negligence, and failure to warn.8Courthouse News. TikTok Settles Ahead of Teen Social Media Addiction Bellwether Trial Her role in the case is confined to what plaintiffs and the court have framed it as: a nonparty whose account history is being used as evidence of what TikTok knew, and when.