Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-data-center-protests-go-national-backlash-grows-2026-07-18/

by 1vuio0pswjnm7 • 3 days ago

47 28 3 days ago

reuters.com

periodjet• 3 days ago

Totally organic.

jsiepkes• 3 days ago

Maybe, maybe not. But there are apparently plenty people who want to participate in it. Which says something.

simianwords2• 3 days ago

It is completely organic and it is not new at all. Every step change in technology involved people like this (though this one is a bit unique in size).

This type of thinking: "slowing down", "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have" is the default mode of thinking for most rich/educated people.

(Note: this type of thinking comes at the upper echelons of Maslow's needs - impoverished third worlders don't have takes on it)

What I think is that most have had enough of chaotic progress and they just want some inkling of stability and some breathing space to even contemplate on the last 20 years of change. What they are instead seeing is a barrage of stuff thrown at them one after the other. I can understand them. And so should all of us.

The suggestion that this is a CCP play shows a lack of theory of mind.

ronsor• 3 days ago

I think both explanations are not mutually exclusive.

TitaRusell• 3 days ago

People are perfectly content to accept pollution if it provides actual jobs not just money for tech bro douchebags living on a yacht in Tahiti.

Instead of buying politicians if you want to build a datacenter start sponsoring the local high school gymnastics club. And for fuck sake never talk about how much you hate society and want to put people out of a job.

Silicon Valley is so terrible at PR. They could learn a thing or two from the industrialists of the early 20th century.

thegrim33• 3 days ago

> The suggestion that this is a CCP play shows a lack of theory of mind.

As if destruction / denigration of US AI / cloud / IT infrastructure wouldn't massively benefit the CCP. Surely there's no correlation there at all, just means, motive, and opportunity, but I'm sure it's nothing.

watwut3• 3 days ago

I haven't heard neither "being in harmony with nature", "be content with what you have", you are literally making them up.

But more importantly, it is not true that every step was like this. In my lifetime, AI is uniquely disliked and it is really its own fault. No other technology was booed in speeches, no other had equivalents of tokenmaxxing and top down push, no other promised dystopia and doom and gloom as selling strategy.

jurschreuder2• 3 days ago

The biggest change is that the left have become the conservatives

add-sub-mul-div• 3 days ago

Guess who organized these protests?

mindslight4• 3 days ago

Yes, as a libertarian I was certainly quite frustrated with bureaucratic authoritarianism. But with autocratic authoritarianism now looming over us, and a bunch of people cheering it on because it seems new and exciting, I most certainly have become much more conservative!

As for data centers, I'm not against them in principle - I'm sitting ten feet away from my own rack [0]. But with the way the legal environment is set up - once something is built it becomes basically impossible to regulate - combined with the vice signalling federal executive that is likely to focus one of its two minute hates on your community if you do manage to succeed at regulating operations, it's simply best to just not give this industry a foothold in your own community. And while this is most certainly a selfish position (I'm happy to use data centers hosted elsewhere), it's all we have until we restore the equitable rule of law.

[0] I am against the centralized software that necessitates so many data centers in the first place though

g8oz• 3 days ago

This is not a left versus right issue. Maybe more of a NIMBY thing. Co-locating natural gas power plants along with the servers near residential neighborhoods has not helped. The stories of electricity rates rising because of data center demand also has not helped.

People are understandably concerned by changes that promise private profits and public risks.

The groundswell of opposition and anger amongst ordinary people runs more broadly than many in the tech industry understand.

Here is famed activist Erin Brockovich railing against data centers: https://youtu.be/XpQo1yQCP34

I don't know how solid her arguments are. But this is the sort of content that is helping inform the opposition that is brewing across America and abroad.

jurschreuder2• 3 days ago

Your point is more about which side is right and which side is wrong.

My point is more about a cultural shift in who's on which side.

The traditional left has become conservative in that they don't want new technology.

While the traditional capitalists want basic income so they can keep building all this cool stuff and keep playing their game of building AI and robots.

What does more harm? Going back to the middle ages having another one of these dark ages where technology is shunned? Will China and Russia then grab power?

Or will we really have a dictator AI?

Possibly both where China is ruling over less advanced countries with AI. They are clearly not stopping developing technology no matter what the west decides.

stevenalowe3• 3 days ago

"The protests were coordinated by HumansFirst, co-founded by a former leader of the modern-day Tea Party."

Stopped reading there.

mindslight4• 2 days ago

There are legitimate frustrations behind reactionaries' anger. Even if you don't personally share them, it would behoove you to understand them. The Tea Party era is when the movement really started listing towards populist-expedience-grift, but that doesn't automatically indict its leaders per se - especially if they're now on a topic you might care about.

And yes, I know it's unfair to ask you to do the work of understanding and addressing frustrations that aren't your own, when reactionaries won't even do this work - instead throwing their support behind a con man like Grump and declaring it's all one big joke. But someone has to, right?

stevenalowe3• 2 days ago

No. The tea party was a clown show, no reason to expect anything different from this

Data center opponents stage 142 protests across 42 US states

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