Is China Secretly Fueling America's Data Center Rage? (axios.com)
- Reference: 0185260782
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/08/28/2115229/is-china-secretly-fueling-americas-data-center-rage
- Source link: https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/china-ai-data-center-backlash-bots
> Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have [2]quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media , X said Thursday night. The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts "posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy," the team said in [3]a tweet .
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> The posts included content on how AI strains the electricity grid and increases utility prices and "cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense." It's unclear what, if any, action X will take to suspend or delete accounts from the bot farm.
One of the reports mentioned in the article estimates that opposition campaigns have delayed or obstructed [4]roughly $45.8 billion in data center projects in Virginia alone.
Jim Prosser, a former Twitter communications executive, pushed back on Silicon Valley claims that opposition to data centers is a "Chinese psyop," arguing that Big Tech is using the label to dismiss legitimate local concerns. "If you can get both Greg Abbott and Kathy Hochul agreeing on something, it's probably not a Chinese psyop," he told Axios.
Prosser said the industry needs to spend more time listening to affected communities rather than dismissing them from afar: "If you're a [venture capitalist] in Atherton or Menlo Park opining about how somebody in Ohio should feel, and you've never been to Ohio, that's a problem."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right
[2] https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/china-ai-data-center-backlash-bots
[3] https://x.com/globalaffairs/status/2093130747796148634?s=46&t=RT4xQX7R03qtkfM5Pw0Nzg
[4] https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19052025/virginia-data-center-development-community-pushback/
No (Score:2)
You don't need China's help to be against the fucking stupidity going on right now.
New McCarthy Strat. (Score:2)
Ah, a new strategy. "If you don't support data centers you're Unamerican and clearly a Chinese asset."
Fueling Data Center Rage? (Score:2)
> The posts included content on how AI strains the electricity grid and increases utility prices and "cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense."
Seems like they're pointing out facts. Inconvenient ones for data center builders/owners, but are they wrong? Doesn't seem like it. The alternative is more gaslighting from data center owners -- like Musk, who owns X ...
> The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts "posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy," the team said in a tweet.
Can't have China potentially "manipulating ... debate" while data center owners are trying to manipulate citizens and politicians. Well, not all politicians; some are already all in, [1]Trump says communities that oppose data centers are "making a mistake" [axios.com] while some see the writing on th
[1] https://www.axios.com/2026/08/23/trump-data-centers-michael-cohen-interview
No (Score:2)
The fucking idiots who are destroying society for a quick buck are fueling rage
Re: No (Score:2)
We as consumers suffers from the data center building race with extreme prices on memory and storage media.
All we can hope for is a burst bubble.