Americans don’t agree on much. Backlash to Big Tech might be the outlier

Big Tech is facing some of its fiercest resistance yet from Americans finding common ground, a rarity in today’s politically polarized environment, over the technology industry’s growing footprint across the country. 

From protests over data centers and AI-powered surveillance cameras to landmark verdicts against social media platforms, backlash against Big Tech is reaching a fever pitch in both political parties.   

Political scientists say the scrutiny on the different issues is colliding and is rooted in the same sentiment: “Don’t tread on me.” 

“You couldn’t think of a better Bond villain than Big Tech, who are promising to put you out of a job, to make your children ignorant and completely captured by their algorithms, to make you completely surveyed so that the government or companies can track virtually every one of your movements, and take your land for its data centers,” Valerie Hudson, a distinguished professor with the Texas A&M University Bush School of Government and Public Service, told The Hill. 

The technology industry had a busy six months, fielding mounting questions over the cybersecurity risks of new, advanced AI models and the data centers and actual data used to train and maintain the technology.

In the midst of President Trump’s inauguration and unreserved support for technology firms, Democrats treated AI and surveillance technology with far more skepticism than their Republican counterparts, often using the industry’s monetary support of the president as ammunition.

Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) seized on concerns over AI’s impact on jobs and the environment, calling for bans on data centers or further AI development. 

These concerns were mostly only expressed among Democrats, but the tides started to shift this summer when a growing number of GOP leaders abruptly broke with their typical support for innovation over strict regulation. 

As data centers and AI development tanked in popularity, Republicans, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, found themselves aligned with figures on the left such........

© The Hill