by Robby Soave, opinion contributor
It’s a tough time to be a data center.
These buildings — which, to be clear, are a vital part of the modern tech-based economy and will only grow in importance as the AI boom continues — have suffered a complete collapse in overall public support. Falling approval for data centers has been rapid and sudden. A poll from Heatmap News found significant erosion over the course of the last year.
“It’s a swift, massive shift in U.S. public opinion on a scale that I wouldn’t have once thought possible,” writes Robinson Meyer of Heatmap.
This shift is happening in spite of the fact that data centers are economic boons to their neighbors. They generate so much money for Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, that the local government was able to cut everybody else’s property taxes. Yet people all over the country are saying they don’t want to live next to them — and political figures are listening.
Both Republican and Democratic state officials have announced efforts to slow down the approval processes for new construction, even over the objections of President Trump, who remains extremely supportive of data centers and frequently touts their benefits.
And Trump’s absolutely right. But a lot of folks disagree, and for once, it’s actually Trump who seems out of step with a growing left-right populist backlash against some economic consensus.
But the question remains: Why? Why are people so furious about buildings?
One idea I’m hearing over and over again is that people are not really mad about data centers per se: Instead, the data centers are a convenient scapegoat for the greater evil of Big Tech itself. And that’s something we’ve all been arguing about for years now. I even wrote a whole book about it a few years ago: “Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn’t Fear Facebook and Future.”
In that book, I mostly covered elite media and policymakers’ sudden opposition to social media, rather than the internet specifically. I don’t think the proposition the internet itself is bad is actually up for debate: Is it really possible to argue that human beings were better off without it? The slightly more sophisticated version of this argument is that the internet has created forms of communication that are addictive and polarizing and brain-rotting, and these make people unhappy.
Still, it’s a curious argument for people who are themselves internet commentators to adopt.
Consider Saagar Enjeti, the co-host of the YouTube news show “Breaking Points” and a former host of Rising, who writes on X: “Data centers are the physical manifestation of all that makes us miserable. It is a monument to our existing misery and a gateway to a future where we’re told we’re not needed.”
OK, but Enjeti owes his entire career to Big Tech. Presumably he does not believe that “Breaking Points’s” 2 million subscribers would be better off without it. Data centers are just the physical infrastructure that make Big Tech possible.
Now, to be clear, I don’t really think that this is why people don’t like data centers. The opposition frequently cites misguided but tangible criticisms like electricity costs, water usage and noise. I suppose it’s possible that these criticisms are manifestations of some deeper existential dread, but is that likely?
It seems more likely — to me, anyway — that people are irritated about new construction and are falling for popular but incorrect talking points about how data centers are gobbling up resources. Advocates for building new data centers need to do a better job explaining to the public that they create huge amounts of value, for the country overall as well as the communities where they’re built. They don’t have to convince people that fancy new technology is good for their lives — most people who aren’t terminally online commentators already like new technology.
One thing Big Tech should do is invest in local communities. Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich points out on X: “Go to a small town. The baseball field is named after some local business owner. New track and field house at the high school. Same. Should be no different with data centers. Put a couple of million into small towns across America and watch this drama end overnight.”
That’s an idea that’s well worth pursuing, because Trump is right: These things are going to be hugely beneficial for their communities there in, as well as massively important for the future of this country and the conflict with our adversary, foreign authoritarian regimes.
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.
President Trump is right about data centers – The Hill
Leave a Reply