The collision of AI backlash, tech settlement news and mounting grassroots opposition to data centres has pushed public hostility toward Silicon Valley to a level that industry figures and advocates say is qualitatively different from anything seen before. Two developments this week crystallised the shift: Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion and impose sweeping product changes to resolve a bipartisan lawsuit over its social media platforms, while fresh data showed that more than $130 billion worth of data centre projects were blocked or delayed by local opposition in a single quarter.
Meta settlement and the AI backlash tech settlement moment
The Meta case was brought by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general who argued the company endangered children and teenagers through platforms including Instagram and Facebook. Under the settlement, Meta agreed to a default two-hour daily time limit for teenagers across both services, muted notifications during school hours, and enhanced parental controls. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the case, described the terms at a news conference as a floor rather than a ceiling, signalling that further obligations could follow.
Jim Steyer, chief executive of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, called the outcome an overdue but well-deserved victory. He said the antipathy towards tech is the most intense it has been since he founded Common Sense more than twenty years ago, describing the current environment as a qualitatively different moment in terms of the backlash.
Distrust runs deep across AI, surveillance and energy
The anger is not confined to social media. More than half of Americans now say they are more concerned than excited about the growing use of AI in daily life, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. That figure has risen from 37% in 2021. Confidence in AI executives is even lower among younger adults: a CNBC Generation Lab survey of 18- to 34-year-olds found that more than 75% of respondents said they do not trust Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei to act responsibly, while around 70% expressed similar views about OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of research firm AI Now Institute, told CNBC that treating the problem as one of public relations would be misguided. “To improve public sentiment requires really meaningfully contending with where the public is at and what they want in a more meaningful way than just, ‘Can we convince you to get on board?'” she said. Amodei himself acknowledged in a post on X earlier this month that the public holds a negative view of AI, writing: “I think it is fundamentally a crisis of trust. I think that ordinary people don’t trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over.”
AI data centres have become a physical focal point for that anger. During the first quarter of this year, around $130 billion worth of data centre projects were blocked or delayed due to local opposition, according to a report from Data Center Watch. In just three months, that figure approached the roughly $156 billion worth of facilities disrupted across all of 2025. Emily Wurth, organising director for Food and Water Watch, said concerns span water use, higher utility bills, emissions increases, noise pollution and the potential loss of agricultural land. In parts of Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, she told CNBC, hundreds of people have turned up to speak out against proposed projects.
The opposition has moved into electoral territory. Both Democratic and Republican candidates have spoken out against data centres during their campaigns ahead of this year’s midterm elections. A memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, obtained by CNBC earlier this month, warned that data centres have become a sleeper issue for the entire midterm election cycle.
Surveillance technology has added another strand to the backlash. Flock Safety, an Atlanta startup whose cameras photograph every passing licence plate and apply AI to extract data, has faced calls for greater regulation from politicians on both sides of the aisle. More than 90 cities have deactivated, rejected or cancelled Flock contracts so far this year, according to advocacy group DeFlock. A Flock spokesperson said new city partnerships have outpaced non-renewals by roughly ten to one, and that the company welcomes regulation of automated licence plate reader technology. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the fallout around Flock folds neatly into the broader resentment toward AI, data centres and the power of tech billionaires, describing it as a long-term, grassroots, bipartisan suspicion of surveillance.
The commercial stakes for the AI industry are considerable. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are valued at nearly $1 trillion and are preparing for potentially historic initial public offerings. AI backlash is expected to appear as a key risk factor in Anthropic’s IPO prospectus, as CNBC previously reported, making the current crisis of public trust a matter not just of reputation but of market access.