Stanford law professor Mark Lemley has quit as Meta‘s (Nasdaq: META) lawyer (or “fired” Meta as his client), objecting to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent decisions to end third-party fact-checking and diversity programs at the social media giant.
Lemley announced his withdrawal Monday on Bluesky and LinkedIn, calling the company’s direction a “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.” He had represented Meta in an artificial intelligence copyright lawsuit.
The decision follows Meta’s move to replace its fact-checking operation with a community-based system similar to X’s Community Notes. Zuckerberg says the change will “restore free expression” after “too many mistakes” by fact-checkers.
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Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has also terminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Zuckerberg will also attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday alongside fellow tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
“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,” Lemley wrote.
He will keep his Facebook profile, citing valuable social connections, but plans to deactivate his account on Meta’s Threads platform.
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