A lawyer representing Meta in an intellectual property lawsuit said he has dropped the tech giant as a client over Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to scrap fact-checking on his social media platforms.
Mark Lemley, who is also a law professor at Stanford University, claimed the Meta boss has embraced “toxic masculinity and neo-Nazi madness.”
“I have fired Meta as a client,” Lemley wrote on the Bluesky social media platform, which has emerged as an alternative to X for left-leaning internet users in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
“While I think they are on the right side in the generative AI copyright dispute, I cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer.” Lemley’s social media post was reported by SFGATE.
Lemley pointed to a series of policy changes and public statements by Zuckerberg as catalysts for his decision.
Last week, Zuckerberg announced he was ending Meta’s partnership with third-party fact-checkers.
Lemley also noted Meta’s decision to scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a move some believe is aimed at aligning with Trump’s incoming administration.
During last week’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Zuckerberg lamented that corporate culture has moved away from “masculine energy.”
Lemley ridiculed the remark in a Sunday post, writing, “Oh yeah, that’s the problem with tech companies — not enough testosterone,” alongside an eyeroll emoji.
“These decisions and comments reflect values I cannot support,” Lemley told SFGATE.
“While I believe Meta should and will prevail in the copyright case, they will have to do it without me.”
The Post has sought comment from Meta.
Lemley was part of a team of lawyers representing Meta in a lawsuit brought by authors — including Sarah Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Ta-Nehisi Coates — who allege the tech giant used their copyrighted works without permission to train its AI models, specifically the Llama language model.
The lawsuit is one of many in a growing pile of copyright challenges targeting AI chatbots.
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