Mark Zuckerberg walked into a Los Angeles courtroom on 18 February flanked by an entourage bedecked in Meta Ray-Bans. He was there to do something he’d never done before – take the stand in front of a jury in a landmark civil case that sought to prove that Instagram and YouTube are addictive by design.
The lawyer behind the case
Jenny Kleeman tells Nosheen Iqbal about meeting Mark Lanier, the preacher-turned-lawyer on a self-described “holy war” against tech superpowers. With a strategy that blends cutting-edge AI jury modelling with old-school theatrical courtroom stunts, Lanier is attempting to do what many thought impossible – force the titans of Silicon Valley to face the consequences of their creations.
When Mark Lanier and his young client Kaley faced Meta and Google in an LA courtroom earlier this year, it seemed a bigger battle than David v Goliath. Lanier, however, was determined to prove the companies had not just stumbled into a youth mental health crisis, but had helped to engineer it.
Impact and implications
According to Lanier, the case is about holding tech companies accountable for designing products that harm young users. He uses AI to model jury responses and employs dramatic courtroom tactics to make his point. The outcome could set a precedent for how social media platforms are regulated in the future.
