Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 31, 2024. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM‘Facebook’s Descent Into Toxic Masculinity’ Prompts Stanford Professor to Drop Meta as Client
Mark Lemley said he could not “in good conscience” represent Mark Zuckerberg given recent decisions to "encourage disinformation and hate speech" on his company's platforms. A suit pending in Northern California alleges Meta infringed the copyrights of several authors by using their works to train its generative AI program.
January 15, 2025 at 07:58 PM
6 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Lemley was part of the team representing Meta in defending its generative AI training process.
- His decision followed Meta’s moves to end fact-checking of information shared on its platforms.
- The post drew praise from some and raised questions about the ethics of such public criticism.
A Stanford Law professor this week terminated his representation of Meta Platforms in a major copyright case, citing his objection to “Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.”
Mark Lemley, the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford and director of the school’s Law, Science and Technology Program, announced in a LinkedIn post on Monday that he had “struggled” with how to respond to recent decisions by Zuckerberg.
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