Are Data Centers Draining the Resources of the South?

Tech companies are also planning to use new broadband infrastructure to power data centers with enormous processing capabilities for a variety of applications, including artificial intelligence. However, the data center buildout comes with economic and environmental risks for many communities, especially those in the southern parts of the U.S. For marginalized communities in the South, the construction of data centers represents another stage in a history of economic extraction, which may impact their ability to reap the benefits that forthcoming broadband infrastructure buildout has to offer. This article includes portions of MediaJustice's report, "The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South."