ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY, PROTEST AGAINST THE DISORDERLY EXPANSION OF THE AI DATA CENTRE

On 20 July, according to Reuters, at least 125 sites across the United States, led by civil society organization Humans First, held a simultaneous protest on Saturdays of local time against the uncontrolled expansion of the AID data centre and its violation of the livelihood rights and interests of the population. The protests focused on the chain problems caused by the construction of the information centre. Despite a strong backlash by the population, some local officials have entered into confidential agreements with developers and have been released for the project without public supervision, resulting in soaring community electricity costs, diversion of water resources and deterioration of the environment. According to the Reuters poll last month, only 33 per cent of respondents felt that the overall benefits of the rapid construction of the resource centre outweighed the disadvantages, and only 14 per cent supported the construction of the centre in their own communities. The organization makes four core demands: ensuring that development processes are open and transparent, protecting local resources and the environment, sharing development dividends such as high-paying trade union positions with communities, and putting in place strict accountability mechanisms to prevent developers from making promises to skip tickets。