Feds Warn AI Critics: Protesting Data Centers Could Mean Criminal Charges

This week, the Justice Department told both citizens and noncitizens that anyone furthering the "goals" of a foreign power through "any public activity" — the warning even mentions "public demonstrations" — has to formally notify the government or face arrest and prosecution. It came days after President Trump posted that opposition to AI and data centers is a "SICK conspiracy" run by China, calling critics "Traitors" and "Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause." On September 19, he hinted the criminal justice system could be used against "BAD" actors in AI.

Why does this land on normal people? Because fights over data centers — the huge buildings that run AI — are usually local. Neighbors worry about electricity bills, water use, noise, and land. Those concerns normally get aired at town halls and zoning meetings. The administration is now framing that everyday pushback as foreign sabotage rather than a neighborhood dispute.

The legal tool in play is FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act — a 1938 law requiring anyone lobbying in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government to register with the Justice Department. In June, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton asked the Justice Department to investigate "foreign influence efforts targeting the buildout of American AI infrastructure," complaining that no anti-AI group had been charged under FARA. His main example was Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based American businessman whose network of left-wing nonprofits has funded content opposing U.S. AI infrastructure.

The catch: nobody has actually been charged, and the government hasn't named a single protest. Critics say the real effect is a chill — if speaking up at a local meeting could get you investigated, many people simply won't speak. The story is less about proven Chinese meddling than about how far the government is willing to stretch national security language to quiet its critics.