Chinese-affiliated bot farms are fueling Americans’ distrust of data center development by “posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,” according to the X Global Government Affairs team.
Axios was the first to report on the situation, writing that “it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down” in the global race for artificial intelligence dominance.
X, formerly known as Twitter, said it identified a bot farm of 200,000 accounts, some 200 of which have been posting manipulative information about AI data centers.
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… pic.twitter.com/Mj0SqerdlH
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 28, 2026
The data center debate has been acute in Alabama of late, particularly with the statewide general elections for governor and the entire Legislature coming up in November.
U.S. Sen. and GOP nominee for governor Tommy Tuberville has repeatedly said that opposition to data centers is partially influenced by China.
“The deal is we’re getting a lot of negative propaganda from China,” Tuberville said at the Business Council of Alabama’s annual conference earlier this month.
Former U.S. Sen. and Democratic nominee for governor Doug Jones has taken a different approach, proposing a one-year moratorium on all data centers and holding multiple campaign events raising the issue as a key one in the race.
The Association of County Commissions of Alabama recently voted to oppose industry-specific planning and zoning authority that would allow county commissions to regulate data centers, arguing that it would go against decades of precedent.
Their resolution instead encourages a “more comprehensive approach to enhance the county commission’s role in strategic and productive growth in Alabama’s unincorporated areas.”