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data centers
'We're Not a Company Town': Tech Hub Seattle Passes Data Center Moratorium
To celebrate, the network of local activists who fought for the moratorium launched a People’s AI Bill of Rights to advocate for fairness, privacy, transparency, and accountability in technological development.
Jun 08, 2026
Seattle—a city whose image and economy has been linked to Big Tech since Microsoft set up shop in nearby Redmond, Washington 40 years ago—is now making a name for itself as part of the anti-tech resistance as its City Council voted 9-0 on Tuesday to make it the biggest US city so far to pass a moratorium on new large-scale AI data centers.
The council unanimously approved two measures—a resolution to study the impacts of data centers and an ordinance passing the moratorium itself—to rousing applause. The votes followed approximately 50 comments from members of the public in support of the measure, as union members, tech workers, and community members voiced concerns ranging from the climate crisis and water use to affordability, AI-driven job loss, surveillance under an increasingly authoritarian federal government, and a general mistrust of Big Tech and its motives.
"We're not a company town. We don't owe our soul to the company store," one member of the public said.
Ahead of the vote, Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck noted that she had heard impassioned opposition to data centers at every committee meeting in which the moratorium was discussed.
"We have a moral imperative... to put the health of our people and our planet above the profit margins of tech companies."
"If we do not legislate or regulate this right, the people will bear the brunt. And I believe we have a moral imperative... to put the health of our people and our planet above the profit margins of tech companies," Rinck said.
To celebrate the win, the network of local activists who pushed for the moratorium launched a People’s AI Bill of Rights on the steps of City Hall after the vote. The campaigners, who organize under the umbrella of Washington AI Resistance (WA-AIR), hope to use the yearlong permitting pause to advocate for a meaningful regulatory framework that would ensure any rollout of artificial intelligence benefits human and ecological well-being rather than the profits of tech billionaires.
“Washington is home to some of the biggest tech companies in the world, and we've been at the forefront of the digital revolution in many ways,” Evan Sutton, an activist with WA-AIR who helped develop the bill of rights, told Common Dreams. “This time, we need to be at the forefront of a human revolution and have leaders rise to the moment to protect us in a meaningful way.”
Saying ‘No’ to This Stuff
The passage of the Seattle moratorium itself is both a reflection of and a booster for the growing national movement against data centers and AI.
Since news first broke April 10 that four companies had approached Seattle City Light with proposals to build five large data centers, which would have consumed one-third of the city’s current electricity demand, over 98,000 concerned residents sent letters to the City Council and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson calling for a pause. (In the midst of the letter-writing campaign, two companies dropped their plans.) An organizational endorsement letter garnered over 50 signatures from a broad swath of interests such as influential unions like the Seattle Education Association and UNITE HERE Local 8, environmental organizations like Food & Water Watch and Third Act Washington, and large advocacy groups like Seattle Indivisible and the Washington Working Families Party.
Ben Jones, the digital and communications director at local climate group and WA-AIR founding member 350 Seattle, said he had been informed by the City Council that it had received more comments about data centers than all other issues for this council put together. The outpouring of anti-data center and AI sentiment reminded him of the climate strike movement of 2017-2018, in which "you've had a lot of people that have been hearing about an issue for a long time that are now realizing the existential stakes of it."
“People are concerned about the role of billionaires, they're concerned about their jobs, they're concerned about being, you know, automated without a safety net, they're concerned about the climate impacts,” Jones told Common Dreams. “There's just really nothing that ordinary people like about this stuff. And that the fact that this is like such an outcry, I think, is in part because people have had very few other ways to actually say, ‘No’ to this stuff.”
"People see data centers as the bridge to AI, and people are not happy with AI."
At the same time, local activists were able to effectively channel and direct that outcry because they had been keeping tabs on national and statewide fights, as Lauren Redfield of Seattle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) explained.
During the fall and winter, Seattle DSA; 350; and Troublemakers, another Seattle-based activist group organized a series of People’s Forums on AI. The WA-AIR network grew out of those forums, and mobilized to support statewide legislation regulating AI and data centers during the 2026 session. While most of the bills they supported were first watered down by tech lobbyists and ultimately defeated, the network remained in place.
“That system, those partnerships, those listservs existed before we needed them to,” Redfield said. “It was really helpful for us to be prepared to act quickly once the rumor broke.”
It also gave organizers another chance to counteract the power of Big Tech.
“Because our legislators weren't able to protect us, now we have to fight community by community,” Redfield said.
Redfield hoped the Seattle moratorium would give the city a chance to enact regulations that would be a “leading example for the rest of the state.” Activists also hope that moratoria will spread across the state—nearby cities Burien and Renton are currently considering them—and be passed for all of King County (where Seattle is located and its utility serves other customers) as well.
And they haven’t given up on statewide legislation.
“We want to have such a strong pushback against these at the local level, that we're sending a very clear signal to our representatives for the next time that they're in session,” Redfield said.
Jones agreed. He told Common Dreams that a "reason why we're so excited to see the Seattle City Council so strongly embrace this is that we need these City Council members in Seattle to be a strong voice when it comes to the legislative session."
Jones and Redfield hope that legislation will set guidelines for both data centers and what they enable.
"I want to see our legislators also think about not just how to protect communities from the infrastructure of AI, but also how to protect communities from AI itself," Redfield said.
Jones added, "People see data centers as the bridge to AI, and people are not happy with AI."
The City Council meeting suggested the activists will have allies in the statewide fight. Council Member Debora Juarez noted that of 9 state bills her office had tracked in the last legislative session relating to AI and data centers, only 1 had passed.
"I'm hoping that this crowd understands, and I know you do, that when this next legislative session comes around, we need to take the bull by the horns and send and talk to your elected representatives," Juarez said.
A People’s AI Bill of Rights
Part of mobilizing for statewide legislation and beyond is the launch of the People’s AI Bill of Rights.
The framework—which was developed over months of research and discussion among members of WA-AIR—is being released both to take advantage of the excitement surrounding the moratorium and to inject new ideas into the space provided by the yearlong pause.
“The bill of rights has to capitalize on that momentum and tell voters and regular people, ‘You don't have to take it, the future that is expressed that you did not have input in,’” Suraj Mirpuri, a member of WA-AIR and Seattle DSA who helped write the document, told Common Dreams. “This is the time for that.”
Becca Deutsch, co-founder of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, said during the press conference launching the bill of rights: "We need to make sure we don't allow our power to evaporate in the heat of this moment. We need to design policies right now that make sure workers and the public come out on the other side of any AI buildout with more power, not less."
Sutton told Common Dreams that the launch was "an important moment to say: 'This is a great start. Seattle is not enough, and data centers are not enough, and let's take this momentum and demand more.'”
“We can really guarantee a better future for ourselves and actually the whole nation.”
The bill of rights consists of two documents—a brief and a longer policy framework. It is built around four core values—fairness, privacy, transparency, and accountability—that each correspond to different potential policy recommendations.
"The Washington People's AI Bill of Rights is built on 4 simple ideas," Sutton explained during the launch. "No. 1, fairness: AI must benefit everyone, not just ultra billionaires. No. 2, transparency: We must know when and how AI is being used and have ways to say, 'No fucking thank you.' No. 3, privacy: We will not live in a panopticon where every movement we make is tracked, surveiled, and used to exploit us. And No. 4, accountability: There must be real consequences for tech billionaires who unleash dangerous products on the world."
Proposed regulations include a fee to offset automation impacts on taxation, a ban on facial recognition technology in consumer goods, a ban on nondisclosure agreements between data center developers and governments, and criminal and civil liability for CEOs whose products harm Washingtonians.
The framework also proposes a statewide moratorium on data centers until laws are passed that ensure they are powered by renewable energy, do not strain water resources or harm river ecosystems, and can produce accurate yearly sustainability reports.
“We have an opportunity in Washington to be the leaders in this space and really address a lot of things that have been unaddressed, using this to heal the wrongs,” Mirpuri said.
After Tuesday’s launch, organizers plan to hold a series of listening sessions in communities across the state to solicit feedback and incorporate it into the document. The goal is to end the summer with proposals that can be transformed into bills to be introduced into the state legislature.
“We'll work with legislators and candidates to get people committed to carrying and introducing those bills and hopefully, hopefully be able to go into the 2027 legislative session with some really bold proposals and a statewide constituency ready to mobilize behind it,” Sutton said.
However, the authors of the bill of rights are also thinking beyond Washington state, hoping to promote a “package of bills” that can be introduced in statehouses across the country and ultimately transform the industry.
Mirpuri offered the example of California’s air quality regulations, which have set the standard for vehicles across the country.
“We can really guarantee a better future for ourselves and actually the whole nation,” he said.
At the same time, the experience of the 2026 legislative session taught activists that they will have a fight on their hands.
“Washington state being a tech leader, we think it will be really powerful if we're able to, you know, overcome what we expect to be an absolute flood of lobbying from some of the biggest tech firms in the world that are based here,” Sutton said.
He emphasized that opposition to AI and data centers are bipartisan issues—even a recent Fox News poll found that 8 in 10 voters believe it is “urgent” that the government enact regulations—and that urban and rural Washingtonians from across the political spectrum would need to unite to impose meaningful guardrails on tech oligarchs.
“Every corner of the state is going to be needed to fight these guys, and we can either link arms together as Americans and take a stand against these extractive billionaires, or we can fight with each other and let them steamroll all of us,” he said. “I certainly hope folks will come together and find a common cause for our shared future.”
Editor's note: Olivia Rosane is a member of WA-AIR, Seattle DSA, and 350 Seattle.
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Voters in California City Become First in US to Approve Permanent Ban on Data Centers
"We hope that other communities will use the model set by residents here... as inspiration to stop data centers from encroaching in their backyard," said a Monterey Park city councilmember.
Jun 04, 2026
Voters in Monterey Park, California on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a permanent ban on data centers within city limits, becoming the first city in the US to prohibit the power-hungry facilities via a ballot initiative.
In total, the anti-data center resolution passed with 86% voter support, with only 14% of voters opposed. The resolution's text said that a ban was necessary to "protect air quality, drinking water resources, and public health" and "prevent impacts to electricity and water rates."
Steven Kung, a leader of the local initiative, told ABC 7 Eyewitness News that the result was "a landslide victory."
Kung listed multiple reasons why residents in the city resoundingly rejected building data centers in their community.
"The noise pollution, the air pollution, the rise in the electricity rates," he said, "the deal just didn't make sense and it doesn't make sense for most, if not all, cities data centers go to."
In an interview with Politico, Monterey Park Mayor Elizabeth Yang predicted that her city would be far from the last to pass data center bans, noting data center projects have spurred protests across the country.
"A lot of the other cities that are facing data center proposals are going to follow suit," said Yang. "There's [a] bad reputation across the board, across the country, from other data centers that have been built in neighborhoods."
Monterey Park city councilmember Jose Sanchez expressed a similar sentiment, telling The Guardian that he hoped his city would become a inspiration to others.
"We hope that other communities will use the model set by residents here in Monterey Park," said Sanchez, "as inspiration to stop data centers from encroaching in their backyard."
Data centers have become political lightning rods in recent months, as residents across the country object to their massive resource consumption, which is leading to a major spike in utility bills, as well as the noise pollution they generate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) earlier this year introduced a bill that would impose a nationwide moratorium on AI data center construction “until strong national safeguards are in place to protect workers, consumers, and communities, defend privacy and civil rights, and ensure these technologies do not harm our environment."
A poll released on Wednesday by Public First showed US residents more opposed to data center construction than any nation in the world, with just 26% of Americans registering support for building more data centers.
This opposition isn't merely abstract, as it has caused major headaches for Big Tech firms that have been scrambling to increase their AI models' compute power.
As The Financial Times reported on Thursday, "dozens of projects collectively worth at least $156 billion have been blocked or stalled since 2025" thanks to local opposition to their development.
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Fox News Defines Most Americans as Anti-American
In declaring contemporary social movements and the people who support them anti-American, Fox News is essentially designating the majority of Americans as official enemies under Trump's NSPM-7.
Jun 04, 2026
One of the secret strengths of right-wing propagandists is their ability to say a few words that are so wrong on so many levels that they take an essay to untwist. Case in point: a recent Fox News post on Facebook. Summarizing a longer article on contemporary political movements, the post reads in full:
Anti-Israel agitators. Climate activists. Communist groups.
Experts warn a growing activist network united by anti-American sentiment—and in some cases China-linked funding networks—is now targeting America’s AI infrastructure and industrial power.
Fox News Digital found many of the same movements protesting side-by-side across the country, including groups opposing new AI data centers over energy and environmental concerns.
“What all of these protests have in common… is that anti-American trend within them,” Hudson Institute fellow Zineb Riboua told Fox News Digital.
While disguised as serious findings from a scholarly exposé about subversive trends in America, the article mostly just lumps together all the usual enemies of corporate, far-right interests and labels them all “anti-American.” Even as pure propaganda, it’s unsubtle and uncreative.
But with the Trump administration’s recent issuance of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7)—a sweeping memo that tries to connect beliefs like these to terrorism and calls upon law enforcement to treat them accordingly—such propaganda now carries more sinister implications.
What unites them is that they are enemies of one aspect or another of the fascist techno-petro-state the Trump administration is attempting to cement. And they all have very real, very valid reasons to hold their positions.
Taken together, the groups in question make up a significant majority of the American population. What unites them is not anti-American sentiment. What unites them is that they are enemies of one aspect or another of the fascist techno-petro-state the Trump administration is attempting to cement. And they all have very real, very valid reasons to hold their positions.
Anti-Israel Agitators
Labeling critics of US-Israeli policy “anti-Israel agitators” is meant to dismiss them as irrational, antisemitic extremists—and, according to Fox News, anti-American. While there’s no room in this article to litigate the issue of Israel-Palestine, suffice it to say the reality is far more complex.
Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza over the last two and a half years, combined with decades of abuse of Palestinians leading up to the terror attacks of October 7, has made them a global pariah. Making matters worse, the US government has given billions of dollars to fund that genocide and provided bipartisan diplomatic cover for it. In addition, many believe—because Trump administration officials have suggested as much—that Israel goaded President Donald Trump into our unpopular, costly, disastrous war with Iran.
All this adds up to a steadily worsening public perception of Israel, with 60% of US adults now having an unfavorable view, according to Pew. Which begs the question: Can 60% of Americans be anti-American?
Climate Activists and Communists
Perennial foes of the big business interests Fox News and the Republican Party represent, neither climate activists nor communists, sadly, have a significant presence in contemporary American politics. But Fox News would never miss an opportunity to put such scary words in front of their audience.
The idea here, to the extent that there is one, is that concern for the climate limits our energy and defensive options, weakening us as our biggest rival, China, is ascendent. Of course there are ulterior motives. One of the biggest goals of the right-wing project is to simply shut down all green energy, as President Trump essentially did in 2025, so that he and the oil tycoons who prop him up can benefit.
There’s nothing anti-American about wanting clean or renewable energy. The Constitution doesn’t mandate that we be a petrostate. It’s also largely agnostic on the question of economic organization. Labeling environmentalism or leftist economic beliefs anti-American is an attempt to shut down the debate before it can happen—lest the American people choose a path that inconveniences the mega rich who are harming the environment and hoarding all the money.
AI Data Center Opponents
Tech oligarchs and corporate pundits repeatedly insist that America needs to win the AI race against China, virtually no matter the cost. But the American people are not yet on board. According to Gallup, 70% of Americans oppose AI data center construction in their communities. And this is largely a bipartisan consensus, with Republicans being only slightly more supportive of data center construction.
Either way, sticking the anti-American label on data center opposition is a tough sell for Fox News. The environmental cost and resource drain of data centers is already impacting communities. At the same time, tech oligarchs like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are frighteningly candid about how AI, which compiles our accumulated knowledge and then sells it back to us in the form of slop, is intended to permanently displace the workforce. There is no serious plan in place to support the millions of people they’re threatening to make unemployed.
No surprise, then, that the massive push for this technology is meeting resistance all over the country. Even in conservative states like Utah, not widely known as a hotbed for political activism, residents are demanding that Big Tech be held accountable for their reckless AI ambitions.
The Chinese Anti-American Subversion Theory
The full article throws together more scary bad guys: “Agitators united by Chinese money, hate for America target data centers… linking environmental, Islamist, and far-left political movements… Climate activists, anti-Israel protesters, and other activist movements with very different agendas have become strange bedfellows united by a shared disdain for America and funding from China.”
The accusation that any of these causes are backed by “Chinese money” is loose and largely unsubstantiated. The article names one accused funder, as if supporting causes was a crime in and of itself: Neville Roy Singham, an American expat who now lives in China. And the only justification that any of this is “anti-American” comes from vague warnings about falling behind China (which, by many metrics, we did long ago) and the fact that China dominates much of the green energy market—all the more reason, one would think, to invest in our own.
Guilt by association can be an effective propaganda technique, though. If Fox can connect all these disparate causes under the banner of anti-Americanism and Chinese subversion, they can encourage their audience to reject any sympathies they may be tempted to feel with such movements—in case they don’t want a data center in their county, say, or they see what’s been done to Gaza.
The Danger of Being Labeled Anti-American Under NSPM-7
In declaring all these causes and the people who support them anti-American, Fox News is essentially designating the majority of Americans as official enemies under NSPM-7. According to NSPM-7, “anti-Americanism” is part of a cabal of threats, along with anti-capitalism; anti-Christianity; “extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” Each of these beliefs is now treated as an indicator of violent, terroristic inclinations. As such, falling under any such label carries with it the threat of surveillance, investigation, prosecution, and other potential law enforcement actions.
Exactly how, where, and when NSPM-7 has been or will be used is still tough to know. That’s part of what makes it so dangerous: The language is so sweeping that, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New York, it could target “pretty much anyone who isn’t a MAGA faithful.” The purpose here is to clearly define what a proper American ought to believe, to chill any dissent with that agenda, and to lay the groundwork for criminal investigations of any American who’s uncooperative.
As things continue to break down in this country, and as Trump continues to become more emboldened even as his approval rating tanks, it’s not hard to imagine him weaponizing his corrupt FBI to go after, say, a data center protest organizer. Actually, this may already be happening: leaked reports, covered extensively by Wired, claim that multiple US agencies are already monitoring what they call “anti-tech extremism.” Such so-called extremism apparently includes activities as banal as photography and other constitutionally protected activities.
It’s awfully bold of Fox News to declare the majority of Americans anti-American. Such is the potency of right-wing propaganda’s complete disregard for nuance, truth, or morality. To untangle the minds of the people who consume this stuff on a regular basis, and actually believe it, is a thoroughly challenging project that will likely take generations.
With politics as heated as they are right now, and so close to getting even further out of hand with directives like NSPM-7, it’s important to reiterate the obvious: Not only are environmental protection, support for Palestine, and anti-AI activism legitimate and well-reasoned, they’re also all perfectly American.
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