Conservative activist Robby Starbuck notches major legal win against Google, defamation suit to proceed
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck landed a major legal victory against Google on Friday as his defamation lawsuit will be able to move forward, according to a Delaware Superior Court ruling.
Last October, Starbuck filed a suit against Google seeking at least $15 million, alleging the company’s artificial intelligence programs defamed him by falsely portraying him as a "monster" to millions of users in the form of "AI hallucinations."
"The Court views these allegations as sufficient to support a claim for emotional distress damages at this stage in the proceedings, being sufficiently well-pled to proceed to discovery and flesh out the allegations," Judge Meghan Adams ruled in the court filing.
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Starbuck touted the victory towards discovery on social media.
"Was it directed to lie about me due to political bias, as their AI alleged? Was it a rogue programmer? A negligently released product? An executive demanding this? Poisoned training? A political bias operation? We don’t know the answers to those questions yet but in discovery we get to find those answers and depose the people relevant to our case," Starbuck wrote on X. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it’s about to get bright in here. Discovery means we get to find out what Google knew, who knew it and why they allowed their AI products to continue spreading these horrific lies."
Starbuck later wrote, "Google is one of the most powerful companies on earth. It may even be THE most powerful. But today, on July 24th 2026, they failed to shut the courthouse doors on us. In short, David landed a shot on Goliath today. Why? Not because David is so great but because God is and the human pursuit of justice IS righteous. Today is a historic victory and now we’ll prepare to win the rest of this fight, not just for me, but for all of us."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Starbuck marveled at the "historic decision."
"As we enter a time when AI increasingly dominates everything around us, we must ensure that it can’t hurt people. What was done to me should never happen to anyone else," Starbuck said. "We must draw a line in the sand that the AI being built can’t harm humans whether it’s via defamation or future physical harm. It’s my hope that this case can be the line in the sand. I very much look forward to discovery where we can dive deep on why and how this happened, as well as if any political bias played a role."
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The lawsuit claims Google's AI platforms – Bard, Gemini and Gemma – have continued to display false statements about Starbuck since 2023, despite multiple cease-and-desist letters. The false statements included claims he had been accused of sexual assault, rape and harassment.
The suit also claims Gemini itself "stated" that its alleged falsehoods about Starbuck were shown to 2,843,917 unique users.
"The breaking point for me was when they accused me of child rape. That was where I was like, ‘We have to just go forward with the lawsuit. They're clearly not taking this seriously. It's escalating into something much more serious and crazy,’" Starbuck previously told Fox News Digital.
Starbuck said that the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk made him realize "some crazy person could believe this stuff," prompting him to set the record straight.
Fox News' Brian Flood and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.