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.
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.
Photograph: Gareth Iwan Jones/The Guardian
