China · Wired · Republicans · Wired
Why China Is the Bogeyman Data Center Enthusiasts Just Can't Quit
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Welcome to the first edition of Power Play!
Key facts
- X ultimately identified 200,000 accounts in the same bot farm; the 200 anti-data center accounts were a drop in the larger bucket
- Be sure to catch WIRED’s first livestream on data centers this Thursday, September 10, featuring Molly, senior politics correspondent Hugo Lowell, and senior business writer Max Zeff
- Polling is getting even more dismal—as many as 75 percent of Americans now say they would oppose a data center being built in their area, up from 42 percent last year
- From now until the midterms, senior writer Molly Taft will be sharing their thoughts every Sunday on this political season’s hottest issue: data centers
Summary
Be sure to catch WIRED’s first livestream on data centers this Thursday, September 10, featuring Molly, senior politics correspondent Hugo Lowell, and senior business writer Max Zeff! It’s been a rough summer for data center boosters. But while some Republicans are turning tail on the issue even in the face of President Donald Trump’s vigorous support for data center construction, others are joining prominent tech leaders in doubling down on an old narrative: That China is responsible for all this malaise. In late August, X announced that it had identified 200 accounts linked to China that were helping to spread anti-data center talking points on the platform, causing a flurry of alarmist headlines and tweets. (“China is secretly fueling America's data center rage,” Axios trumpeted in an article on X’s report, which data center-friendly politicians and right-wing figures amplified using X itself.