U.S. officials blame China for fueling data center protests, but experts and social media analysts say domestic opposition is the real driver—with foreign actors merely amplifying existing concerns.

What happened: Right-wing officials and data center investors have claimed that Chinese government funding is behind U.S. protests against data centers. OpenAI released a report Wednesday describing Chinese accounts spreading anti-data center messages online. However, Graphika, a social media analytics company tracking the issue for a year, says it has "not yet seen evidence of organized or scaled influence operations or campaigns that can be traced back to a foreign actor," with only two minor exceptions: a network using AI-generated avatars that occasionally mentions U.S. tech companies, and some Facebook pages with Bangladesh-based administrators appearing to exist "for monetization purposes." OpenAI itself found "no evidence of meaningful breakout" of anti-data center messaging from the accounts it flagged.

Why it matters: A poll from Heatmap shows that more than half of Americans support a moratorium on data center development, and U.K.-based Public First found U.S. support for data centers was the lowest of 15 countries surveyed. Experts including Kyle Chan at the Brookings Institute and Graham Webster at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation told WIRED they are skeptical of claims that Beijing is directly orchestrating this opposition. They point out that high-level discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials happen routinely on other global issues, and that Chinese state media simply picking up U.S. media stories about data centers is normal wire service behavior, not evidence of a campaign. Graphika's analysis indicates "domestic U.S. actors are leading the online anti-data center conversation."

What to watch: OpenAI notes that the targeting of U.S. data center buildouts "shows PRC-origin influence operators testing narratives against AI infrastructure," suggesting foreign actors may be monitoring the space even if they have not yet shifted public opinion. Chan cautioned to "be cautious in estimating the impact of these efforts before seeing more evidence, but it is something worth tracking."