Big Tech has come to Small Town, USA and is not exactly receiving the type of hospitality you’d expect. Across the country, city council meetings that are typically dominated by hyper-local issues have become battlegrounds for broader political and ethical debates, spurred by the encroaching tentacles of tech giants. City council members are increasingly under the microscope as they debate these issues, and some are straight up not having a good time.
Take Saline Township, Michigan, a rural midwestern town that was pegged to serve as the home of Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative. The $16 billion project received significant pushback from the nearly 3,000 residents of the town, and they pushed the town’s board to deny zoning to the companies trying to build the huge CPU farm. Related Digital, spearheading the data center, opted to sue the town instead of taking the hint and leaving, and the town relented instead of going to court. They took a settlement and allowed the project to move forward.
Ever since then, the townspeople have been trying to push their representatives out, including town treasurer Jennifer Zink. According to 404 Media, Zink announced that she was resigning from her role this week, citing death threats that she has received in the wake of the settlement. “I’m submitting my resignation effective May 29th. I can’t take it anymore. The threats. The ‘I’m gonna tar and feather you,’” she said at the end of a recent township meeting. “It’s disgusting.”
She’s not alone in opting to step away. Janesville, Wisconsin city manager Kevin Lahner stepped down from his role earlier this month as part of a “mutually agreed” parting of ways. That decision followed sharp criticism from residents of the city, who believe there has been a lack of transparency regarding a planned data center project. Festus, Missouri City Council member Staci Templeton stepped away from her post earlier this year for similar reasons. They at least (kind of) left on their own terms—elsewhere across the country, council members are getting voted out for their support of such projects.
But it’s not just data centers that have caused splits across American politics. Surveillance has increasingly become an issue that is driving voters to push back against creeping Big Tech influence. Flock Safety, a surveillance company known for its automated license plate readers, has become the target of pushback from residents who want the cameras out of their communities.
That has put some pro-Flock representatives in a tough spot. Bandera, Texas councilmember Jeff Flowers is perhaps the most spectacular example. 404 Media reported that after the town’s council voted to cancel their contract with Flock, Flowers—one of two dissenting votes—absolutely crashed out. He’s reportedly drafting a “Bandera Declaration of Digital Independence,” which will call for banning smartphones and any connected devices, arguing they are no different than the surveillance cameras Flock provides.
“I have seen the eyerolls, and I’ve even been met with ‘Nazi rhetoric,’ the dangerous claim that believing in accountability and community safety is somehow equivalent to totalitarianism,” Flowers wrote before calling for a “total termination of all internet services and electronic record-keeping.”
Of course, Flowers has a point that we do live in a surveillance state. It’s just weird that his pro-Flock position essentially boils down to “Let’s just give in to it.” At least the town picked an incremental improvement over that kind of straight-up nihilism.
