Robby Starbuck sues Meta over AI-generated defamatory statements
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta in Delaware Superior Court alleging that Meta's AI chatbot generated false statements about him, including claims he participated in the January 6 Capitol riot and the QAnon conspiracy theory. Meta's chief global affairs officer publicly apologized via social media, stating the AI's outputs were unacceptable.
What happened
In August 2024, Robby Starbuck discovered that Meta's AI chatbot had generated false statements about him while he was targeting Harley-Davidson's DEI policies. One dealership posted a screenshot of Meta's AI responses that contained what Starbuck described as lies, which he verified by checking the AI himself.
The false statements included claims that Starbuck participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and was associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. Starbuck says he was in Tennessee during the Capitol riot.
Reported impact
Starbuck stated he has "faced a steady stream of false accusations that are deeply damaging to my character and the safety of my family." He filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta in Delaware Superior Court on April 29, 2025, seeking more than $5 million in damages.
Index analysis
Meta acknowledged the problem through its chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan, who posted on X: "This is unacceptable. This is clearly not how our AI should operate." Kaplan stated that Meta had previously released updates to address the issue but that the fix "didn't address the underlying problem."
Governance controls
Meta said it was "working now with our product team to understand how this happened and explore potential solutions." The company stated it had released updates and would continue to do so as part of its "continuous effort to improve our models."
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.