Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor who represented Meta in a 2023 AI copyright case, has dropped the company as a client due to what he calls CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.”
Business Insider reports that Mark Lemley, a prominent Stanford law professor and lawyer who represented Meta in a high-profile 2023 AI copyright case, has announced that he has dropped the social media giant as a client. Lemley’s decision comes in the wake of recent changes implemented by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which the lawyer describes as a “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.”
Lemley, a partner at the law firm Lex Lumina, represented Meta in 2023 when comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors sued the company for allegedly violating copyright by training its Llama AI model on their written works. At the time, Meta’s legal team argued that the claims should fail because the authors could not prove that the AI-generated text closely resembled their original content. The case is still ongoing.
In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Lemley expressed his disappointment with Meta’s direction, stating, “While I think they are on the right side in the generative AI copyright dispute in which I represented them, and I hope they win, I cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer.” He also announced that he has deactivated his Threads account, as he does not want to “support a Twitter-like site run by a Musk wannabe.”
Lemley’s woke meltdowncomes amidst a series of sweeping changes implemented by Zuckerberg since the start of the year. These changes include eliminating third-party fact-checking in the US in favor of community notes, reducing DEI initiatives, and Zuckerberg’s recent statement that Meta needs more “masculine energy.”
Many have drawn parallels between Zuckerberg’s recent actions and those of Elon Musk, who has made similar changes to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Musk has been vocal in his opposition to DEI initiatives and biased left-wing content moderation, and has thrown his support behind right-leaning political parties and figures in Europe and the US. He is also a prominent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump and has been named co-lead of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Zuckerberg’s shift in political stance and relationship with Trump is a marked departure from his previous approach. In 2020, he expressed disgust at the then-president’s “divisive and incendiary rhetoric” on Facebook, and the platform subsequently barred Trump in 2021 for praising “people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6.” However, Meta reversed this decision two years later.
Rhett Millsaps, managing partner of Lex Lumina, commended Lemley’s decision, stating, “Money can’t buy everyone. We’re proud to be a firm that doesn’t sell out our values. Sadly, it seems this is becoming a rarer and rarer quality in America today.”
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
