An attorney who previously represented Meta as a client has dropped the social media giant amid growing frustrations over the company’s recent changes.
Mark Lemley, a Bay Area intellectual property attorney and Stanford Law School professor, had represented Meta in a proceeding over the company’s alleged use of copyright texts for training artificial intelligence. The case, brought by a group of authors, could lead to precedent case law.
But Lemley couldn’t rationalize what he called “Facebook’s descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” he wrote on Bluesky.
On Monday, the attorney had been removed from the case and Meta’s roster. While Lemley believed his client was on the right side of the case, he said: “I cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer.”
Meta allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation” in posts as of last week, Lemley told SFGate.
The company appears to be winding down its diversity, equity and inclusion programs ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, Axios recently reported. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to host a reception before the inaugural ball.
Lemley told SFGate: “Meta remains represented by outstanding counsel in this case, and I believe they should and will prevail in the case. But they will have to do it without me.” He had been working on the case since 2023.
The attorney continued to say he thought about quitting Facebook altogether but didn’t want to lose important connections on the app. Instead, he’s refusing to buy anything being promoted on Facebook or Instagram and deactivated his Threads account.
In another post, he poked fun at a comment Zuckerberg made on the Joe Rogan podcast recently, stating corporate culture has moved away from “masculine energy.”
Lemley refuted that comment on Bluesky. “Oh yeah, that’s the problem with tech companies — not enough testosterone,” he wrote.
According to SFGate, the company’s workforce was 64.2 percent male and 35.8 percent female.
The Independent has emailed Meta for comment.
