National security experts are warning about China-linked efforts to use American artificial intelligence and social media platforms in attempts to shape U.S. debates over data centers, energy, and technology policy after X said it identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 suspected inauthentic Chinese accounts.
X’s Global Government Affairs account announced Thursday that the X Safety team “conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations.”
“We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts,” X said. “Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”
According to X’s Global Government Affairs account said, “These posts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid.” The company added that other posts “included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense.”
“We remain committed to maintaining an open and authentic platform where people debate topics of public interest,” X said. “We take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy.”
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, reacted to the findings on X, writing, “The CCP is using American AI tools to try to take down American AI. For those keeping count OpenAI and X have CCP use of their tools to run astroturf campaigns opposing American technology infrastructure and AI development.”
Lucci told Breitbart News exclusively, “The CCP is leveraging cutting-edge American AI tools to attack our domestic debate about technology infrastructure, doubling down on their long-term goal of using our open society against us. Their current mission is to destroy American technological leadership. OpenAI has documented PRC-linked actors using its models to generate social media posts, comments, and AI-generated images aimed at manipulating legitimate U.S. debates over data centers, energy costs, tariffs, and AI policy. X has separately identified suspected Chinese scam accounts seeking to amplify similar narratives, underscoring a broader effort to use American platforms and AI capabilities to manufacture opposition to the infrastructure needed for American AI development.
“In effect, PRC-linked influence operators are exploiting American technology to destroy public support for the very technology and infrastructure underpinning U.S. leadership in AI. State Armor is working across the states to shut down the CCP’s influence in America, but more must be done. We cannot allow the CCP to weaponize our own technologies against America’s strategic interests.”
Lucci also warned about the issue in a recent opinion piece titled “Texans Cannot Fall Victim to Data Center Propaganda,” arguing that “China has every reason to slow Texas down” as the state becomes increasingly important to U.S. AI development.
In Texas’s Senate race, Democrat nominee James Talarico has attacked Republican nominee Ken Paxton over roughly $400,000 in contributions from donors connected to the data center industry, but Talarico himself has benefited from more than $11 million in support from donors with ties to the data-center and AI industries.
Talarico’s current push for tighter restrictions also contrasts with his own legislative record. In 2023, he voted for legislation that would have created a 20-year tax exemption for qualifying large data centers, even as he now calls for repealing Texas’s data-center sales-tax exemption and has blamed the facilities for rising utility costs.
Paxton, meanwhile, unveiled a four-point AI data-center plan calling for federal legislation to block Chinese technology from the facilities and criminal liability for data centers that power AI chatbots harming children. His proposal also endorses Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan addressing electricity, water, and other resource use by data centers.
Mike Martin, a former Trump National Security Council spokesman, told Breitbart News, “Communist China is using American AI tools and American social media platforms to quietly shape the debate over whether America should build the infrastructure it needs to lead in AI. We’ve now seen PRC-linked operators use AI-generated content and inauthentic accounts to amplify opposition to data centers and other U.S. technology policies. That should concern anyone who cares about America winning.”
Cale Brown, chair of Polaris National Security, said in a statement to Breitbart News, “The revelation from X about the Chinese bot army attempting to sway public opinion in America about data centers makes clear that this is a strategic competition for the commanding heights of the future economy. The CCP will leverage every tool, including American AI and American social media platforms to divide and weaken us. At the same time, they ban these same social media tools in their own country because the party’s greatest fear is of their own people.”
X’s investigation follows a June 2026 OpenAI threat report detailing two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating from China that the company said it banned after they used its models in apparent covert influence operations targeting American AI and technology debates. OpenAI said the first, dubbed the “Data Center Bandwagon” campaign, used ChatGPT to generate social-media posts and images claiming AI data centers were increasing electricity demand and raising electricity prices for ordinary Americans, with operators posing as Americans and using VPNs to access the platform from China. The company assessed that the operators were likely part of a social-media operations team at a private Chinese technology company working for provincial-level government clients and said their activity included efforts to build credible personas, evade platform detection, automate social-media operations, and amplify narratives about data center costs.
OpenAI said a second China-linked cluster, the “Tech and Tariffs” campaign, generated comments and political cartoons criticizing U.S. technology policies and tariffs while framing the United States as seeking technological dominance and rule-making power. The company said this cluster promoted pro-PRC narratives, targeting international audiences. OpenAI found no evidence that either campaign achieved significant authentic engagement, but said the operations were strategically significant because they showed PRC-origin actors testing narratives around U.S. AI infrastructure, energy costs, tariffs, and technology policy that could be inserted into legitimate public debates and push audiences toward distrust of American institutions and technology companies.