Chinese 'bot farm' behind anti-data center propaganda on X | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Now, if you listen to this program, I'd like to think that you are. really, really, you know, attractive and smart and also well-informed, maybe even a bit ahead of the curve on some stuff. Okay, now you know me, I don't make predictions. I try to only bring you information that is reported, is verified as a very high likelihood of being true, right? I don't just like come up with you know, crazy wild speculation and just throw it out there as if it's true. Like I'm not blaming foreign countries and the like for assassinating political figures when I have zero evidence of it. I don't do that sort of thing. That's not my jam. Okay. Maybe it's because I come from an ethical background or, but also because I used to be a reporter. And so I would deal with the things that I could confirm. And then I would report those things, right? So if you were listening to this program for any period of time, probably over the last three months, you should have heard me making a connection between China and the quote-unquote grassroots opposition to data centers. Now, this was not me speculating this. This was due to reports of investigations that had actually made these connections between, as I mentioned, I think, yesterday or day before, right? You've got Neville Roy Singham, the tech mogul, multi-multi-millionaire, left-wing commie guy, lives in Shanghai. He married one of the co-founders of Code Pink, and he is like the major funder of an organization called the People's Forum. And the People's Forum then distributes grant money to all sorts of organizations, leftist commie organizations, like the DSA. They have DSA members hold conferences and stuff. They fund that sort of thing. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is another one, the PSL. And I made this connection a few months ago when A whole bunch of PSL moon bats showed up at the Charlotte city council meeting in opposition to data centers. I think we get the idea there. Okay. So they showed up in support of a data center moratorium that the Charlotte city council did in fact pass a 150 day moratorium. And I noted that they were there because I already knew of them and and their activities in North Carolina and around the country, and that they had glommed on to the anti-data center movement. Okay? And I brought to you information that China wants us to handcuff ourselves as Americans in the AI race, much like The Soviets wanted us to handcuff ourselves in nuclear energy. They did not want us to become energy self-sufficient, right? Because if we are relying on other nations for our energy sources, then it makes us vulnerable. And the commies wanted us vulnerable during the Cold War because any vulnerability could then be exploited, right? And the same goes for China. They want to be the leader in AI. So they get to quote unquote, write the rules for how AI is to be used. And if they can surpass us, then their AI becomes better. They write the rules. They can then put in restrictions and whatever that we would have to abide by, but they would not. And they then accelerate even faster. And if their AI becomes a super, super, super powerful, then, then they could use that against us because we would be more vulnerable, right? And so they see the data center issue as part of the AI race because it is. However, data centers are about more than just AI, right? I am now, by the way, whenever I talk about the internet or if I'm going to check my text messages online, anything like that, anytime I'm now making any reference to, oh, let me look this up or something, I say, oh, let me consult the data center. Because that's what you're using is a data center. If you're on the internet, you're using a data center someplace, right? But get this. Twitter, formerly known as X, they put out an alert from their global government affairs account And here's what the alert said. The ex-safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations. We identified a bot farm. So one, one bot farm. And if you don't know what a bot farm is, it's where they grow bots. No, I'm kidding. It's where you have all of these computers or cell phones, whatever, set up. If you've never seen some of the videos or images that come out of these bot farms every now and again, first off, it looks like a miserable existence if you're one of the workers in these bot farms because they sit you at a rack of 100 phones and they're all plugged in and you're just like, You're just like tweeting different things or you're spamming accounts. You're doing all– all you're doing is propaganda. You're pushing out messages and you're liking– like one account will post something and then you use all of the other phones there to like that post. That then tells the algorithm, oh, this– post is popular. And so then it gets boosted. And then, you know, other people in the bot farm with their hundred phones, they're boosting your stuff. And so it is an inauthentic, it is a fake campaign. That's a bot farm. Some of it's automated. So they don't actually have people that are doing it individually. Some of it is automated, but that's what a bot farm is. And Twitter or X, they have found, they found and denounced a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. That is one farm. And these things are all over the place in these foreign countries, these bot farms. Within this farm, they found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy. Surprise, surprise. But not to you, because if you've been listening to this show, you already know this. This is just further confirmation that China is, in fact, trying to manipulate the American public in the way we look at AI and data centers. This is truth. This is evidence. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7000. extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie, Katie at GroupTravelVideos.com. Group Travel Videos, from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. Okay, so Twitter, formerly known as X, announced that they conducted an investigation and they identified a Chinese bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. And within the farm, they found 200 of them that were posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy. These posts contained claims that AI data centers are... You want to guess what the claims are? That they are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense. X says we remain committed to maintaining an open and authentic platform where people debate topics of public interest. We take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our authenticity policy. So why would China do this? Again, I point out, right? They don't necessarily create the issue, but they exploit them. Same thing with the Black Lives Matter movement. We found all of the Russian bots and all of the money that was flowing through the BLM movement. A lot of it was coming from overseas. A lot of the posts, a lot of the algorithm manipulation was coming from overseas. They don't care about the issue. Same thing with the 2016 election. in the 2020 election, right? They don't care what it is that we are disagreeing about. What they care about is that we are disagreeing and they will amplify those divisions. They just want the chaos. And when it comes to the data center stuff, it's working. It's working. And that's not to say that you should not have any concerns whatsoever about data centers. I have never said that there are not legitimate concerns. There are. People have concerns. There are different concerns, different issues. It is a complex topic. And you've got national, international, tech, economic, local implications. I keep pointing out. a lot of the concerns that people have are local, that the local governing bodies, they're the ones that are, you know, either entering into agreements for these developments and the agreements that they're signing are not great, right? Which is why when Charlotte was debating, the city council was debating its moratorium, I said repeatedly, if the moratorium is just to pause to give the local zoning people time to develop a regulatory framework in how to approve these things because they, they are industrial, but they aren't, you know, like how do you zone for this thing and make sure that, you know, neighbors aren't negatively impacted and you know, whatever it, they're the lighting and the, the hum that everybody complains they hear, but is like, I, like I, I, I have not seen that to be conclusive. So there are all these people that make a lot of claims. And trust me, I know this. I'm seeing it firsthand in my own neighborhood. Okay, I've said this before. We have the hyperscale one going in in West Mecklenburg, and that is like 0.9 miles from our neighborhoods. And so I got people on our Facebook group that are, and not a lot, there's like three of them, but they're out there and they're, they're whatever the, the anti data center propaganda is, they're pushing. They're just, they're just pushing it all into this Facebook group. And I will point out like, that's not true and whatever. I mean, I don't say that, but I give them links to things like, Hey, here's a, like they were, Oh, it's driving down property values. That's what it's going to do this to our neighborhood. And so I, quite helpfully, I think, provided a link to the only study that I'm aware of that I found that looked at property values around data centers. It was out of George Mason University. You know what it found? Property values went up. Yeah. There are reasons for that. Usually when you approve a project, you require the developer to make infrastructure improvements. Those infrastructure improvements were down to the benefit of the area because now your roads are a little bit wider. You got sidewalks and streetlights or whatever, because that's just part of any development that goes in there. And, you know, the neighborhood then, you know, in the area, they see their property values go up. That's the only study that's been done on this so far. It was from last year. So, The local governments have a role to play. So when Charlotte looks at its moratorium, I said if you're just doing it so you can create a regulatory framework for how these things will be done, I'm okay with the moratorium. But if your moratorium is actually designed to block all data center approvals, well, now I'm not fine with that. But we're just going to have to wait and see what comes out of the working groups and the task force and that sort of thing. But the propaganda campaign that China has been waging, it's not just China, by the way, but it's been successful. They are winning this. For example, according to Heat Map News, three quarters of Americans now say they would oppose a new data center being built near where they live. This poll was conducted by Embold Research. More than 6 in 10 Americans say they would strongly oppose such a proposal. Now see, here's part of the problem. When I say data center, what do you think? What is the image in your mind of what it is I'm talking about? Is it the massive ones? Or is it like the small ones that look like office buildings that we've got already like 30 of them in Charlotte? See, all of these things look different. And we've had them for years, decades. So. What is it that you're actually opposed to? When I say data center and you're like, no, like, well, what are you actually opposing? Do you even know what it is you're opposing? Because every single facility is going to be different. And it's going to impact, depending on where you place it, it's going to impact things differently, right? I know, I know, this is too nuanced. The text line has some texts. coincidentally, I shall read them. Uh, Robert says, Hey, what are your thoughts or opinion when it comes to floating data centers? Thanks so much. Have a good weekend. Um, sorry. Have a great weekend. Robert says, uh, floating data centers. I'm in favor whether by air or land or sea. Uh, yeah, I'm okay with them. I mean, floating in the air would be That would be wild. I don't know if they've perfected that tech, but in the water, I'm okay with that. You could put them next to the windmills, I think. Yeah, I'm okay with that. And there are some that are being tested, like some underwater data centers, helps with the cooling and whatnot. Dean says, why don't we build all the data centers in Alaska? Yeah. Plenty of land, not in my backyard. Abundance of water, all the icebergs. Oil is there, independent and cheap. Oil can run the generators, only polar bears to protest. Thank you. So, yeah, I mean, Alaska, I'm sure they want to put some data centers there too. The issue, though, is that you need data centers fairly close to certain operations and populations, right? they can't all be out in the middle of nowhere, right? Because the, the longer the distance you lose some efficiencies. And sometimes like if you're doing things that require like immediacy, like actual, you know, point to point, virtually no time passes between, you know, the command and the result or whatever. So you have to have some of these things, some of these centers that are close to populations and, I mean, I'm not going back to dial-up speeds, people, for my cold, dead hands, okay? Like, I'm not going back to dial-up. Jason says... one day we are going to wish we were just as upset about multifamily apartment complexes in Charlotte being built as we now are with the data center nonsense. Well, so here's the thing too. Like if you live in an area as I do that, I mean, West Mecklenburg County is sort of like the last frontier in Mecklenburg County that hasn't been really developed because the infrastructure was never laid out there. The water pipes, the sewer pipes, right? A lot of that stuff now is being upgraded, replaced, or laid in for the first time. And so we're seeing a lot of multifamily rezonings popping up all over the place. And this was occurring 20 years ago when I was down in Steel Creek. Now Steel Creek has exploded, right? And if you put a data center, like if the land is, if I own, you know, a hundred acres and I can either have it developed along your route to work, your commute to work along, you know, a farm to country road, one lane, each direction. Would you rather I sell that 100 acres to multifamily housing? Or would you rather I sell that to a data center? Because one of those is going to create a metric buttload of traffic, also will require schools, health and human services, police and fire protection, like all of those things. Residential, the mantra in local development, local government, is always that you want the commercial market and the retail because they pay more in taxes and you don't have to provide all the services. This is the problem that bedroom communities have. I remember Fort mill dealt with this when, you know, we saw all this explosion back in the mid nineties, late nineties into the two thousands, all these housing developments going in and everybody was working in Charlotte and like that, but they're not generating enough tax base to pay for all of the services that residential requires. That's why you want an industrial base and you want a retail commercial base. You need a mix of those things. And the data centers, I mean, they don't employ a lot of people, probably somewhere they could employ about, depending on the size, 20 to 100 people or so, high-skilled, In fact, I just saw the electricians unions, like they're coming out in support of data centers because of all the work that they're getting. Like this, like when, when Donald Trump talked about reinvigorating manufacturing and everybody thought it was going to be, you know, steel mills and smelters and, you know, car plants and all of this stuff. But like, and I'm not saying he meant this as like, Oh, he was actually talking about data centers. I don't think he was. However, with the modern technology, is this not the modern equivalent of a manufacturing? You're building these things, and what are they manufacturing? Compute, intelligence, data. So maybe it just looks different. Maybe the manufacturing renaissance just looks different because it's manufacturing something for the modern age. No? Yes? Maybe? Maybe. Can I get a maybe? Maybe. Time now for a little segment we like to call Pre-Gaming with Brett Winterbull. Brett Winterbull from The Brett Winterbull Show. It's good to be with you. How are you? It's wonderful. Yeah, I'm doing all right. You doing all right? I'm doing great. How is your bot farming going? Um, I don't use bot farming. Really? Yeah. I'm not a bot farmer. Uh, if I was going to grow anything. It would not be bot farming because it's just too close to. Yeah, I just, you would not be growing the bots. I'm not doing the bots. The bots are, the bots are like very 1987 or something. What about a bot garden? A bot garden? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like just like one of those little, uh, boxes that hang out the window, you know? No, I'd be doing, uh, black hole sun, uh, by, uh, by, by the great, uh, now passed away, uh, guy, but no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm all good. How are you? I'm still good. Yeah. I'm still doing all right. Um, no, I just, uh, just saw the alert that came down from Twitter formerly X. Oh yeah. They, they did an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts. Yeah. Are you sitting down? You may want to sit. I am sitting. I actually am sitting down. Okay, good. So they identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Oh my gosh. And so that's one bot farm from China. And within this farm, they found 200 accounts that were posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy. Also making claims about data centers. Yep. Which by the way, and how they're driving up electric prices. Oh, please. Straining the grid. Oh, but please, I am, dude, I love the stuff that we're doing with this technology. And I, and I, I stand by it. So too bad. You and I, I am, I am with you there. Although hang on for the record, I have to say, yeah, I welcome AI. I welcome our AI overlords. Yeah. So just in case they do take over and they need a couple of humans around to, like, put oil in the gears and stuff, I can do that. I just want that on the record, as always. That's great. Unless, of course, they detect sarcasm, in which case then I'm going to be– I'll be taken out, too. But anyway. Yes, sir. So this idea, and I've been talking about this for a while, that the tricoms, they do not want us to be winning or leading in the AI race. Right. And there are parallels, there are analogies in our history where foreign... adversaries have engaged in this similar kind of behavior. For example, the anti-fracking stuff, the anti-nuclear stuff. Yep. Right. And so, and for some reason, now we've got the, the AI and the data center stuff. It's whenever I say that the DC, the D word, the DC word. And so now, and so now we have even more evidence of, that the tricoms are propagandizing to us in what they call the smokeless battlefield, the Chinese call this. Oh, I love that whole thing. I was listening to that yesterday with you. Holy cow. That thing, that's just two dudes doing some stuff, and then suddenly it just explodes, a lot like COVID. I actually have a story that's sort of related to COVID. Oh, no. In my final... good one coming on segment. Oh, that's cool. That's a teaser. That's what we call, yeah, we call that in the biz a tease. A tease. Yeah, yeah. Right, so how do we reverse or fight back against all of the propaganda? Because like I was saying earlier, I see this on our neighborhood Facebook group. There are these anti-data center zealots that are on there. And so– and they're just promulgating and promoting all of this same propaganda from the CHICOM. So like how– because there's so many different aspects to it. There's the electric. There's the water. There's the pollution and the impact and then the AI and then the people that are running these AI companies. They're not the most sympathetic or likable people too. Like that's part of it also. Right. So what do we do? I have an answer, and it's a very ugly answer, but I will posit it to you. All right. I have the dump button ready. Until we get rid of the millennials... Oh, my God. Everybody's going to just be frightened from every part of the universe. And I'm telling you, look at the Gen Z kids. Look at those people. They're not afraid. They're ready to get out there and do their business. But it's the millennials. Once we get the millennials out of the picture, we're going to have a normal country. That's Brett Whittable saying it, not Pete Callender. So, you know, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. But the millennials are very... very nervous about everything. And I, and I think that they shouldn't be. I mean, that's kind of our fault in the boomers fault. The boomers fault. Yeah. I mean, they raised, I mean, cause they, some of them raised the millennials. Well, that's exactly true. Yeah. And the X and Gen Xers did too, but. No my my gen xers my the offspring of my gen x-ness yeah oh why we took we took our kids out. And just let them go in the in the sleds and all that kind of stuff that because you gotta you gotta live life yeah it's only once. Yeah yeah yeah free range millennials you amen right so you had a millennial farm oh i would love that you were could you imagine yeah you were growing and raising millennials. I had two i mean we just we just replicated once you know so it's like two of. Us yeah yeah yeah yeah that's what a replacement a replacement yeah replacement uh that's right yeah that's fair um Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think, yes, I think the millennials are a problem, but I'm seeing a lot of the opposition on this stuff is actually still coming from the boomers. Well, yes, but let's be honest. Did you see what they wore in the 70s? I mean, it's really. I cannot cast any stones, although. You know, I was being dressed by boomers, so that's not really my fault, you know? Yeah. But I've seen the pictures. Dungarees. There you go. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Had the, was it the Dorothy Hamill haircut like everybody else did? Oh, like the bowl cut? Absolutely. Oh, gosh, that's so great. I'm bringing that back. No, you're not. Okay, I'm not. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support. and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalinershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.