Overview
- More than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports obtained by WIRED this week show federal agencies and regional fusion centers using new language that links growing opposition to AI and data centers with possible 'anti‑tech violent extremism'.
- Several fusion‑center assessments flag routine protest behaviors — including photography, observing sites, testing security, and expressed threats — as suspicious indicators that could signal risks to data centers.
- The FBI said it investigates people who commit or intend to commit violence and offered no further comment, and neither DHS nor the agencies have publicly adopted the 'anti‑tech violent extremism' label into official, published domestic‑extremism guidance.
- Civil‑liberties groups warn the broad criteria could sweep up lawful dissent, chilling town‑hall activism and local opposition to data‑center projects that already face community resistance over water use, power strain, noise, and local benefit.
- Security concerns driving the reporting include high‑profile attacks on AI figures and fears that state, criminal, or homegrown actors could target centralized AI infrastructure, a dynamic that could slow data‑center approvals and push debate over how to balance public safety with constitutional rights.