PM Show Hr 1 Mark Lanier on His Legal Victory Against the Meta Empire

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Our little podcast is the podcast that could, the little engine that could. You know, when we started, it was just a simple rebroadcast of our show, and they would take it over and put it on this new podcast platform. I didn't think anything of it. Before long, we started hearing from people all over the country where we don't air on the radio in the town where they are. And I would say, well, how are you hearing us? Did you find us online? And they say, no, I was on a podcast. Or, as happens for more than anything else, somebody sent me an email, say, hey, check out this podcast. He's from Houston, talks a lot about Texas, but talks about national stuff, and I think you'll like him. And that's how our little podcast grew to be one of the top in the country. It's pretty cool. And so we have show sponsors on the radio. We have show sponsors on the podcast. One of them's a good buddy of mine. His name is Ray Breyer's. And he owns the Pipeyard Inc. And what he does on his cell phone is people call and go, hey, I got a 118 mile pipeline going through Louisiana into Mississippi. And he says, all right, let me go check it out. He goes out. He rips that pipe out of the ground all the way. And he goes off and sells that to somebody else who needs the pipe. It's a beautiful process. And people call him all from our show, from our podcast, all over the country. Thepipeyard, inc.com. 409-788 pipe. 409-78 pipe. Talk to Ray, the pipe ma'amma, good buddy. Did you know that most insurance companies will pay for a man to have testosterone replacement if he's below 350? Isn't that interesting? You've probably heard that testosterone will, well, invigorate you. Your wife may enjoy that, or she may want to be left alone, but your wife may enjoy that. You may enjoy that. But there's so much more. Let me tell you, more energy, more strength, you feel better. Synergenics. Go get your blood tested. Whether you write a check every month or it's on direct deposit or auto pay, you write a check to your insurance company for a reason. You could have spent that money on anything else. You made a good decision to hedge against bad things happen, and then it did. Hurricane, windstorm damage, hail damage, fire, smoke, water damage. And that insurance company, 10 states away, denied your claim, and they should not have, and you know it. Go to claimdenied.com. It's the Chad T. Wilson Law firm, and they will fight for you. Claimdenied.com. 713-2-2-6,000. 713-2-2-6,000. It's that time, time, time, lock and load.

Before we begin, I'd like to do something important. I'd like to acknowledge the land that we're gathered on, and the first peoples who have gathered on this land, who were and still are the stewards of this land. This country is going straight to hell. America is infected with a disease, and that disease is called racism. It often is utilized to support economic benefits of corporations, the economic benefits of those who use such divisions in order for their personal profit. This country has had a long-standing labor practice that is despicable at best. And so the idea of Make America Great Again, we don't see a country that has gone wrong. In my opinion, we see a country that has never been right. Man, they're walking on the fighting side of me. Yeah, walking on the fighting side of me. Running down the way to life, I'm fighting and thought you died in here. If you don't love it, leave it, let this song I'm singing be a warning. You're running down my countryman.

To create this nation, we are called to sustain this nation and that the slide is deadly. It's interesting to hear a man who is typically more restrained in his language. But, you know, I think as you get older, you start recognizing I got... Way more yesterdays than I do tomorrow's. I need to sound the clarion call that, folks, you've got to stand up. I can't be nice about this anymore. You've got to stand up. And I encourage you if you can't listen to it live that you go back to the podcast, which we encourage everyone to do with our podcast. And so we will talk to Attorney Mark Lanier about big tech and what they're doing to your kids in just a moment. We've recently seen, let's say the Nancy Guthrie case. You see these cases where media is making up a story or highlighting a story to get you connected to it. It's overblown. And at some point, people are just going to say, you cried Wolf too many times. We're not paying attention any longer. I know people are addicted to drama, but it's too much. I mean, Dateline has made a fortune doing this. Sunday night on Dateline, we uncover a stalking story with a twist. Who is it? Sarah Stevens was a normal suburban single mom, raising her children as best she could. But weekends were filled with Little League baseball game, gymnastics, and if time held, maybe a scoop of ice cream on the way home. Until one day out of the blue, the calls began. Hello, this is Sarah. Hello. Was anyone there? Hello? Huh, that's weird. Nobody's there. The silent calls kept coming. I'm known caller again? Who is this? And coming. 396 area code. What the? Identify ourselves. Hello? For Sarah, a simple trip to calls for a discounted blouse, became a clothed... Honored House. Oh my gosh, look at this top. So cute, right? No, what? Someone's following me. Watching me? 947 area code? What is that? Hello? Who are you? Why are you tormenting me? Sarah's life would become a ring of terror. Who are you dark, terrifying stranger? I'm here. Just come get me. And the answer would be more terrifying than even imagined. Because the dark silent stranger would finally speak. This message is for Sarah. Sarah, did you know that your car warranty is expired? To a new.

Press 1. To talk to an agent, press 2. To go back to the main menu, press 3. Every breath you take. Remove the receiver and listen for the dial tone. It sounds like this. The Michael Bari Weiss Show. That tone indicates everything is ready for yourself. The Texas Tech Law School is named for Mark Lanier. He's one of the most successful attorneys alive today. He has won major case after major case, and he just won one that is very, very important against the tech giants meta, which is Amazon, and Google. If you've ever felt like your kid seemed, I don't know, addicted. to social media, literally, demonstrating the traits, the symptoms of pure addiction. Well, this case result reveals that actually that's exactly the design. They're praying upon your children. Mark Lanier is our guest. Welcome to the program, Mark. Michael, joy to be on the show and not just listening to it. And I understand you're in London today? I am. I am in England today. I've got some meetings. In fact, they want to make a documentary about the case that you were just talking about. Good. People need to know the story. Why did you take this case? Honestly, I did not realize how significant it would be. My daughter told me that she had to figure out who was going to try it because she was one of the co-leads. I told her to pray about it and she'd get a good answer and she called me a week later and said, God's answered my prayers, Dad. I said, wonderful. Who's going to try it? She said, you are. I said, Honey, I don't know that I want to. And she said, well, pray about it, Dad. And so I decided looking into it that this was an important, this, in my, from my faith walk, this was a godly mission. Let's talk about what exactly drew you in. What were these companies doing? You didn't have a verdict to say that this is true. What are Meta and Google and perhaps others doing? Well, remember, they make money off of your time and attention. The more time you spend on their apps, the more ads they're able to sell. And they didn't become these trillion dollar companies. by accident. It's all by design. As one of the YouTube documents said from 2011 and 12, YouTube said, our goal is not viewership. Our goal is addiction.

If you look at the meta documents, meta, of course, is Instagram, meta during the same time period, we're putting out document after document where they realized and their employees were saying, it's just a matter of time before people realize we're the new tobacco. They're making cigarettes for the eyes. They're trying to addict people because the more, as Google said, if we can increase from 300 million hours a day viewership to a billion, we can make an extra $50 billion. So how are we going to do this? We're going to target children, especially the vulnerable children, because they're easiest to addict. When you say a vulnerable child, I mean, I think we all probably have our own idea, but what do you mean by that? Well, I get my definition of it from meta themselves. This is a document I used when I cross-examined Mark Zuckerberg. They have documents inside that say the ones that are more likely to get addicted and to have the negative mental health problems of addiction are the ones that are particularly teenager or younger, the ones that are female. the ones that come from a home without as much money, and the ones who come from a home where the parents don't have those solid resources of parenting. You've got a single mom trying to work and rear three children at the same time who's not able to babysit every minute they get on a phone or on an app on the computer. Those are what... meta-recognized as vulnerable children that they could get. You and I are of a generation where kids who went home without a parent and maybe had a key around their network known as latchkey kids that let themselves in and then they would engage in the devil's workshop of television. This is far worse, isn't it? Yes, it is. These are screenagers at their worst because a television, there's going to be a show or a set of shows that you may be interested or may not. But these social media giants have algorithms that have no morality at all. And their entire focus is to figure out what will keep you on longer and to feed you a steady diet. It's like you go into a Barnes & Noble bookstore and there's a table of books there. And someone might pick up a novel. And as soon as they pick up a novel, every other book on it changes into a novel. Or if they pick up a book on basketball, every other book changes to a sports book.

But the algorithm does something even worse. Michael, what it does is it uses its artificial intelligence to figure out what others may want. And so, for example, we have a 10-year-old plaintiff. She gets on and she's taking gymnastics, so she'll do a search for gymnastics among three teens. and she'll get some videos. But the algorithm knows that that's also what perverts do who want to see young girls in leotards. And so every seventh or eighth video might be one that is feeding a perversion. And if that young girl just stays on it for a second because she's in shock, what is this I'm seeing? Then the algorithm thinks, ooh, she liked that. And it'll start feeding more and more. And then the perverts who see those will start messaging her. It is, it is sorted the way it is all designed to trap anyone they can for as long as possible. Is the primary thrust of your case or was the primary thrust of your case, not just that they were doing this, but that they were doing it to children because they don't have the age of majority. They can't make decisions. They can't, or was it generally that they're doing this in one of those groups, perhaps the most sympathetic plaintiff would be a child? Well, I had a child in my case, and that was my focus. I take these cases for children. I don't take them for adults because you're right. I mean, if you're 35, 45, 55, and you just can't get off the app, well, you need to do something, but you ought to be able to get off it. But these kids, their brains have not fully developed to understand. the long-term consequences or the harm of what they're doing. And that's where it's particularly damaging. Hold with me for just a moment. Mark Lanier is our guest. We all have, I think, a sneaking suspicion that something is going on with social media, that it is affecting who we are as a people, that it's affecting our children, that it's affecting our society. Well, his case shows, and we'll get deeper into this, that that's not a byproduct. That's not a bug in the system, a glitch. That's the design. Mark Lanier coming out. I hope you enjoy our podcast as much as we enjoy making it. You can always email me through the website, Michaelberry Show.com. I do love to hear from you, and I do respond to you. Tell me where you're emailing from. It's fun. Our podcast listeners are from all over. And wherever you are all over, there's a decent chance that you have or know someone who has a steel pipe that can be sold to my friend Ray Breyer's.

at the pipeyard inc.com they dispatched trucks across the country to haul one load or 300 loads of pipe i had one listener in georgia his company had an abandoned pipe an abandoned line running all the way from louisiana through the Southeast Conference of Football, Basketball, and Ray Breyer's, the Pipyard Inc. was able to pull all that pipe out, pay them for that pipe, and then sell it to another user. Thepipyard Inc.com. 409788 pipe. Did you know that most insurance companies will pay for a man to have testosterone replacement if he's below 350? Isn't that interesting? You've probably heard that testosterone will, well, invigorate you. Your wife may enjoy that, or she may want to be left alone, but your wife may enjoy that. You may enjoy that. But there's so much more. Let me tell you, more energy, more strength, you feel better. Synergenics. Go get your blood tested. I get the nicest emails from listeners of our podcast and our show who say they called Petru in Home Fitness, and it changed their lives. They were able to get off their walker. They were able to get out of their wheelchair. They're into their 90s and they're going to be able to walk their granddaughter down the aisle. They're going to be able to stand. They're going to be able to walk. They're going to be able to move around. Petru in-home fitness comes to your home. You don't need a gym. They can bring bands with them. They want to get you back up and stronger for life. Petru in Home Fitness. Mark Lanier is our guest. Let's play out every angle of devil's advocate. Let's say somebody says, you know, the social media sites are just good at what they do. You know, a television could hook you to television by good programming. What are the actual damages? What is the harm that is done? Well, let's take it. That's a great question, by the way, Michael. Let's take, for example, the plaintiff that I had, a young girl named Kaylee. Kaylee grew up in California, and California is the home of these social media companies we were after. These social media companies knew that they had school-age children on their apps and that they were sending them messages in the middle of the night to light up their phones and to buzz. saying, hey, here's a reason you need to check. Here's a message you need to check. Or here's something you'd really like. And they would send them these notifications and the kids would be on the phone all hours of the night. Now, they could have tweaked the app so that the children would not be on the phone during the night, especially during the school year. But the person who oversaw this within Google and YouTube.

said that while it would save 7,000 hours a night for children sleeping in California, he didn't want to do it because ultimately it would just cost them money. And Google didn't want to be hit with the loss of income. So they'd rather have these kids stay up all night on their phones. If you don't get sleep as a developing teen, it alters your brain. Just being addicted. alters your brain. Makes you more prone to depression, anxiety, and it makes you more prone to other addictions as you get older, whether it's gambling, sexual addiction, or any number of different types of drugs. Your brain has already formed the addiction highways that will lead you to be more prone to all aspects of addiction. The problems are the companies knew about it. They assessed it. And they said, but the thing is, we're making too much money. Here's another example. These apps put filters on so that little teenage girls could change their appearance on the app, make their teenage acne go away, smooth out their skin, fill out their eyebrows, raise their cheekbones, or take a body shot and give themselves more of a Barbie doll look. They could do all of this, but you don't realize that everybody else you're looking at is used to filter. All you realize is, wow, all of these other girls look so good, and I look in the mirror, and I look dumpy, and I look, you know, my eyes aren't symmetrical. My nose has a bulge, my whatever it may be. And so body dysmorphia is something that rages, and within meta. Mark Zuckerberg himself was sent the email saying, we know Jonathan Haidt and others have told us. We know that we're causing body dysmorphia for a generation of teenage girls. We've got to take these filters down. And Mark Zuckerberg's reply was, nah, that's paternalistic. If they have problems, that's their problem, not ours. And that's what was going on. Mark Lanier is our guest. We're talking about his case against big tech. When you look at what they were doing and how egregious it was, particularly as it relates to children, was anybody internally the conscience of this, the Cheryl Watkins, Sharon Watkins saying, hey, guys, maybe let's just, let's pump the brakes on this. I have kids, you have kids. Maybe what we're doing is not right. Yes, there were several. Two of them were whistleblowers that we actually brought in to testify. One of them said to Mark Zuckerberg, having worked there for almost a decade from when it was a small company to when it became the huge thing that it is, he said to Mark, he said, Mark, I can't work here unless you put a stop to this and we do this right.

Let's not let children on who aren't old enough. Let's age gate. Let's put protective measures in to take care of the children. And Mark Zuckerberg said, well, I hope you feel like you did some good things while you were here. But basically, don't let the door hit you on the way out. I'm not going to make those changes. And he said, Mark Zuckerberg really underwent a change himself. in the last 10 years as his money grew through this. And so we had him come testify. We had another one testify that they shut off the safety teams and the well-being teams. We also had some internal documents from people that we couldn't call. During the last segment, we talked about those filters that they had that they contribute so much to the body image issues with teenage girls. And one of the people, one of the heads of safety, was sending an email to Mark Zuckerberg saying, I wish you'd reconsider. I have two daughters in the hospital right now over these mental issues because of Instagram. And I'm telling you as a parent, we are destroying a generation. And his response? I don't tear. So what was his attitude toward you and toward this issue on the stand? Did he try to be a more sympathetic or likable defendant to the jury or was the arrogance we see otherwise on full display? I thought it was on full display. He also came across very wooden, very just machine-like. He had hundreds of hours of preparation and training from lawyers and from media experts, which opens up the cross-examination. For me, how many hundreds of hours do you have to be trained by lawyers to teach you to tell the truth? And that's all you're supposed to do is just tell the truth. I mean, do you have to get hundreds of hours with a lawyer before you can tell your wife you love her at the end of the day? I mean, what are we doing here? And he was just very, very, I mean, you felt like you were talking to a picture. cold, I would say. I have always suspected, and I don't know this to be true, and I'm not saying it is because I don't have any proof, but I have always suspected he is part lizard. Have you ever had that suspicion about him?

I'm sorry for laughing. Yeah, I'm sure the DNA's in there somewhere. You know, but, you know, you do this. You brought the case against Johnson and Johnson, and I think how many women, you know, that smell of the baby powder, are you doing this wholesome thing? You know, when I remember when I was a kid, I remember my mom. putting it on us, you know, in your most private parts, and there's just something wholesome. You know, you had your baby powder on, and you're drying off, and you're the baby. And to know, as they did, that this was carcinogenic. This was potentially deadly to children. I just, I really wonder, a look into Mark Zuckerberg's soul. At some point, the difference between, you know, $1 billion and $2 billion or $2 billion and $5 billion. The cost, the devastation that he wrought, I just wonder how a human being like that, to use the cliche, could sleep at night. And you get the sense that this person is perfectly suited to not care. That's part of how he ended up there. Mark Lanier is our guest. We'll continue our conversation with him about his successful suit against big tech coming up.

Michael Bari Weiss Show. Simple man. Mark Lanier just won a lawsuit against the evil empire meta, which is Facebook and Instagram, among other things, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google. We could spend some time on Google, and perhaps we should. But I have to ask you, Mark, do you think that these companies will do anything? Will they change anything as a result of this, or is this just the cost of doing business? You know, Pinto, didn't move their gas tank because they decided it was cheaper to just pay out the lawsuits. And it wasn't until they got popped real good that they had to do something about it. Mark? I had a little, I think that was on me. Mark, you there? Yes, I am. Okay, sorry about that. They will certainly, they will certainly do something for the PR angle. Now, whether it's putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound remains to be seen. Previously, when they got in trouble because a whistleblower went to Congress. They announced 30 programs or 30 features they were going to do to help protect children. And then internally, they were laughing about it saying that these would have no effect whatsoever. But boy, it made for good PR. Well, and it strikes me that that's really odd. They don't have a conscience. Clearly, they're not going to do anything because it's a right thing to do. Exactly right. Do you get the sense how prolific is, how common is sex trafficking on these sites? And to what extent are they aware of it and capable of doing something to kind of put the kibosh on it and don't? They're absolutely aware of it and they're absolutely capable of doing something about it. And at this point, I'm not satisfied that they've even remotely come close to doing the things that they can do. You know, they will, their algorithm will help marry up people. They'll make friend recommendations that are outrageous where they're recommending some. a 45-year-old, 30-old man to some 10-year-old kid. They've got some serious problems. And I'll tell you, one of the next ones I'm after is Roblox. Roblox may be the worst there is at that. Really? And what happens on Roblox, it would turn your stomach. It's worth another show sometime. Wow. I want to take a quick divergence because I just finished a really good podcast. I didn't like the ending of it, but it's a 10-part podcast called Hooked. And it's about the opioid addiction, the opioid epidemic.

And the guy starts with Oxycontin. He's a 22-year Boeing engineer, and he ends up addicted to heroin, and he's robbing. He robbed 30 banks, which he's the last guy you would ever expect. His kid gets hooked. I know that you had a big lick in that one. Do you think we made a difference there? Because this opioid epidemic is a real, real concern for me. Yeah, it's still a real problem. And we've made some changes. We've managed to get some of the legalized pushers to quit pushing the drug. And so that's been helpful. But there's still a bunch of bad people. And we've got foreign governments that are still seeking to do it. The fentanyl issue out of China is still a real problem. Comes in through Mexico and other places. Whether you agree or disagree with Donald Trump on a lot of different things, he certainly correct that there are huge issues with these opiates coming in from over the border. I was a tort reformer for a long time. And I still believe in minimal litigation and against frivolous litigation, but I have really changed my opinion seeing what big pharma has done through covid and and through uh the drug drug epidemic what big tech has done and it's really changed my view on the need to redress things in the court in a way that i never uh believed before do you notice a change because you are what what didn't exist before you are a conservative christian pastor plaintiff's attorney and that kind of mix that that didn't that didn't that didn't happen before Yeah, I've noticed a bit of a change, but I mean, I'm kind of like you, Michael, in this sense. I'm still believe that our courts need to be, in a sense, a place of last resort. I think that our courts, we need to get rid of all of the abusive lawsuits that are out there. That might mean someone who's not really hurt who's hoping to get a lottery ticket from a jury. But it might also mean a corporation that's done something wrong and figures their way out is to hire the best lawyers in the world and spend you into oblivion because you can't bother to stand toe to toe with them in a courtroom. Both of those are abusive situations for lawsuits. And we need to figure out a way to make the court system a fair playing ground that people can reasonably go to. It's the last resort, and they can't get justice any other way. I read some time ago that every single CEO of a tech company prohibited their children from even having a smartphone, much less these apps. We held out with our kids way later than everyone else.

And other parents would say, how can you keep your kid from having a phone? You just do. They don't have to have it. But you've seen inside the belly of the beast. You've seen things that we won't have time to get into. What is your message to parents with young kids who are letting the phone babysit that child? My message is stop now, stop, stop, stop, stop now. You are already, as a parent, up against astronomical odds that you can defeat the brightest minds that computers have ever had who are out to trap your children. Your best bet, though, absolute best bet. is to talk to your children and say, well, what do I talk to them about? Don't just talk about social media. Talk to them about how their day went. Talk to them about what they're doing with their world. Talk to them about what they like. Talk to them about what they ate for lunch. If parents and children will communicate with their children, they will be at that cutting edge of understanding when something may be going on that they wouldn't know otherwise. And they'll have a relationship with their children to be able to do something about it. So I just think parents need to really plug into their kids' lives on all aspects, not simply what do they have on their phone. That is so true, and you will notice things earlier than a disconnected parent will. A lot of parents are really good parents. They provide food. They drive them to sports practices. They diligently sit there. They hire all the best tutors and instructors and all that, but they're not aware what's going on because they will. They will indicate that there are problems there. I am glad you brought this case. I am glad you were successful in this case. I hope if those folks won't change their internal policies, I hope this will. really, really put a bow on this issue for parents to understand it. That is a danger zone. That is a powerful tool, that phone, and bad things can happen to your child, your innocent child, through almost no fault of, really through no fault of their own, their minors. Mark Lanier, let's do have you back. Safe travels, and thank you for being our guest. Thank you for sharing this story. Thank you for drawing attention to this, Michael. You're a very important part. Appreciate you. You hear that for a moment? Very important part. See? Yeah, so next time you tell me, you try to belittle me, you just remember that. It really is sick when you think about it. It is sick.

I truly believe Mark Zuckerberg is a sick individual. He looks sick. I do. I think he's part lizard. I do. I don't know how it works in there. I grew up on planet of the age. Stuff that gets in there, gets in the gene pool. Our little podcast is the podcast that could, the little engine that could. You know, when we started, it was just a simple rebroadcast of our show. and they would take it over and put it on this new podcast platform. I didn't think anything of it. Before long, we started hearing from people all over the country where we don't air on the radio in the town where they are. And I would say, well, how are you hearing us? Did you find us online? And they say, no, I was on a podcast or, as happens for more than anything else. Somebody sent me an email and say, hey, check out this podcast. He's from Houston, talks a lot about Texas, but talks about national stuff, and I think you'll like him. And that's how our little podcast grew to be one of the top in the country. It's pretty cool. And so we have show sponsors on the radio. We have show sponsors on the podcast. One of them's a good buddy of mine. His name is Ray Breyers, and he owns The Pipeyard Inc. And what he does on his cell phone is people call and go, hey, I got a 118 mile pipeline going through Louisiana into Mississippi. And he says, all right, let me go check it out. He goes out. He rips that pipe out of the ground all the way. And he goes off and sells that to somebody else who needs the pipe. It's a beautiful process. And people call him all from our show, from our podcast, all over the country, the pipeyard, inc.com. 409-788 pipe. 409-78 pipe. Talk to Ray, the pipe man, my good buddy. Did you know that most insurance companies will pay for a man to have testosterone replacement? If he's below 350? Isn't that interesting? You've probably heard that testosterone will, well, invigorate you. Your wife may enjoy that, or she may want to be left alone, but your wife may enjoy that. You may enjoy that. But there's so much more. Let me tell you. More energy, more strength, you feel better. Synergenics. Go get your blood tested. You paid your insurance premiums, hoping that you would never get fire, smoke, damage, water damage, hail damage, hell, we have so many. storms and hurricanes come through here. And the national carrier now doesn't want you, doesn't want to pay you. Chad T. Wilson law firm fights so that you do. He is the lawyer that will fight to get you covered. Go to claimdenied.com or email me and I'll connect you. Claimdenied.com.