By Diana Novak JonesAug 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google, ByteDance's TikTok, and other social media companies over claims they designed their products to be addictive to ‌young users. But ‌the 9th Circuit said Section 230 provides a ⁠defense to liability, not immunity from lawsuits, so the appeal was premature. Advertisement AdvertisementThe companies are facing hundreds of additional lawsuits over similar claims ​in state court, with approximately 3,300 of them in a consolidated proceeding in California ​state court. And, Meta lost both phases of a landmark lawsuit brought by New Mexico in state court. Both Meta and Google, which have denied the claims in those cases, said they would appeal.