X Uncovers a Massive Chinese Bot Farm Pushing Anti-Data-Center Propaganda

The foreign misinformation campaign against America’s future continues. 

Elon Musk’s X revealed Thursday that it has identified and removed a Chinese bot farm of roughly 200,000 accounts, several hundred of which were working to sow opposition to the buildout of AI data centers. While it is impossible to know precisely how effective those accounts were, the operation targeted a debate already primed for manipulation. The foreign misinformation campaign is clearly working, as nearly three-quarters of Americans now oppose data-center construction in their communities. Much of that opposition is driven by false or deeply misleading claims about how data centers will affect local water use, electricity prices, job opportunities, land use, and even the local economy.

🚨 JUST IN: X has just rooted out a Chinese bot farm of 200,000 THOUSAND accounts influencing American politics, with hundreds of them running an influence operation against the construction of data centers in the US

The posts claimed that AI data centers “drive up household… pic.twitter.com/LQQfiGu0Sn

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 28, 2026

“The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations: We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,” X’s official Global Government Affairs account posted. “These posts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense.”

“We remain committed to maintaining an open and authentic platform where people debate topics of public interest,” the post continued. “We take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy.”

Beyond X, China has also funneled misinformation through left-wing activist groups, amplifying anti-data-center rhetoric and helping fuel campaigns that have blocked or delayed nearly a dozen proposed facilities. Meanwhile, China has strengthened its power grid and dramatically expanded its own data-center buildout. 

Even worse, conservatives are falling for the propaganda. 

Opposition to data centers has become overwhelmingly bipartisan, culminating on the conservative side in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott imposing a statewide pause on new projects. The issue has managed to turn ordinarily anti-regulatory conservatives into something far closer to the DSA, believing that “Big Tech” is imposing its will on local communities, that private investment is inherently suspect, and that more government control is the obvious alternative. 

The reality is much different. Localities should be able to decide for themselves whether a data center is built in their community. That should be a conversation between voters and local government, not another backroom deal made after officials have decided that public opinion is merely an inconvenience. For too long, local governments have normalized sidestepping voters on major development decisions, then allowed the resulting anger to be redirected at data centers and the companies building them. That failure belongs to local officials, not the infrastructure itself. 

And the companies proposing these projects, many of which are not Amazon, Microsoft, or Meta, need to do a better job explaining how data centers will benefit the communities in which they operate.

However, people also need to listen.

Study after study shows that data centers do not consume nearly as much water as people fear. Golf courses, restaurants, and even residential lawn care use more water than all U.S. data centers do in a year. Electricity prices are not rising because of AI data centers either. In most cases, data centers are actually responsible for declining prices. Land use is another out-of-touch concern. All projected data centers by 2030 could fit within a midsize city, while the federal government pays farmers to leave an area of land roughly the size of Kentucky unplanted, and yet there is little public outcry. 

And the economic case should be even more compelling. These projects have breathed life back into towns neglected by politicians, from Washington to North Dakota to Louisiana, generating enough local tax revenue to repair infrastructure, invest in teachers, fund community pools, and so much more. They are also reviving America’s blue-collar workforce, so much so that Democrats have complained data-center projects are paying construction workers too much.

Voters should have a real choice in whether data centers are built in their communities. But the answer cannot be to let misinformation, reflexive anti-corporate anger, and foreign influence turn Americans against the infrastructure that will determine the country’s economic and technological future. China is expanding its grid and data-center capacity because it understands what is at stake. The United States should not respond by allowing itself to be frightened out of the future. 

AI data centers are not a threat to America’s future; they are part of it. The country that rose to global dominance by building railroads, factories, power plants, highways, and the internet cannot convince itself that it has suddenly become too timid to build the infrastructure required for the next era.

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