Alethea: China, Russia, and Iran Amplifying US Data Center Backlash

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing The New York Times, Washington-based disinformation tracking firm Alethea Group said US adversaries including China, Russia, and Iran are trying to use state media coverage to turn domestic controversy over AI data centers into a “fault line” to deepen social divisions and weaken US appeal. The report cited examples including a recent article by a Chinese state-run newspaper that published satellite imagery of a Virginia data center and said in English that AI development threatens Americans’ health and finances; a comic circulating on X that blamed surging electricity bills on data centers, which OpenAI said was created by people in China using ChatGPT; and a video shared by a Russian covert influence operation questioning a US company called Firebird building a data center in Armenia. Alethea said that from January to June this year, Chinese, Russian, and Iranian state media mentioned data centers about 700 times, or nearly four times a day on average. Separately, a Gallup poll in May found 71% of Americans oppose building data centers near their homes, nearly 20 percentage points higher than opposition to nuclear power plants. US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a recent interview that external influence operations have successfully stoked opposition to data centers. China’s embassy in the US, through spokesperson Liu Chang, rejected the allegations as baseless and said China and the US should work together to promote AI development and improve governance.