"We pissed off a lot of people": Giant data center plan cut 50% amid protests

Although reports indicate—and Adams said was the case in Utah—that communities have genuine concerns fueling the rise in opposition, not everyone agrees that the immense community backlash in the US is rational or proportionate. On Bluesky, Will Stancil, a lawyer, activist, and housing policy researcher, commented on HeatMap’s poll, suggesting it seemed unusual for public opinion to shift so quickly without “some major data center disaster.” In his thread, Stancil boosted a reply suggesting that data center backlash “hit the algo,” raising a theory that social media is possibly driving anti-data center sentiment. And while O’Leary blamed himself and Adams for making “mistakes” in Utah, he also claimed that the protests he faced in the state were due to foreign interference, NBC News reported. He accused China of supposedly funding the Alliance for a Better Utah to conduct a smear campaign to set back his project, a claim which the nonprofit has denied. “All these people have a right to get information,” O’Leary said. …