AI Gets Drowned at the Ballot Box

Dear Citizens,

Was America’s “blue tsunami” also its first AI election?

Tuesday was a crushing night not just for Republicans, but for Big Tech’s plans to carpet the country with AI data centres. Tech-backed candidates lost, voters backed local restrictions, and Democrats promising tougher scrutiny made gains. The Boston Globe called it a major hurdle for the industry.

Even Elon Musk’s millions couldn’t buy the result he wanted. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

But as Britain sets out its own plans for AI infrastructure, is America’s growing resistance a warning for Labour? In our weekly newsletter The Eye, our journalist Max Colbert examines the political power of communities pushing back. Catch up here.

Here’s what else to read, watch and do this week…

✊ ONE READ: Voters Reject the Tech Oligarchy ✊

At 404 Media, Jason Koebler argues that Tuesday’s result was bigger than a partisan wave: it was a wholesale rejection of Silicon Valley’s worldview, its political spending and its attempt to present AI expansion as inevitable. From tech-backed candidates to local data-centre measures, voters chose democratic control over billionaire rule. The message is simple: there is one fight—and it is over whether a handful of tech giants get to have their way with the rest of us. Read the post-election analysis here.

👂 ONE LISTEN: Big Tech’s No Good Bad Week 👂

And that was before election night. On the Big Technology Podcast, Alex Kantrowitz and Ranjan Roy unpack a brutal earnings week for the tech giants: Wall Street’s growing anxiety about runaway AI spending, pressure on the Magnificent Seven, Meta’s advertising surge, Anthropic’s leaked financials and the rapid collapse in the cost of running AI models. Is the AI trade finally losing its shine? Or simply changing shape?

👉 Listen to the conversation here.

⚡ ONE ACTION: Follow Europe’s Data Centre Revolt ⚡

Today and tomorrow (7 November), campaigners across Europe are holding two days of action against the unchecked expansion of AI data centres, with marches, teach-ins, webinars and local protests from Amsterdam and London to Zaragoza and Warsaw. Hell yeah!

These communities deserve a voice, and these concerns about water, energy, pollution, public subsidies and democratic accountability deserve visibility. Find an action and learn more here.

👉 Coming up: Mark November 27 for the second Attention Strike: a day to withhold your clicks, scrolling and spending from Big Tech—and redirect them toward people, places and independent businesses instead. Sign up and track the hours reclaimed.

That’s all for this week,
Team Citizens

PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already! 400+ people share practical advice on protecting your data, organising against Big Tech and staying ahead of what you need to know.