The new report, “The Compute War at Home,” outlines a three‑phase evolution: first, activists seized on a local grievance linked to President Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration; second, they repurposed that mobilization infrastructure to launch a nationwide anti‑data‑center campaign; third, they fused the data‑center narrative with concerns over Flock cameras, framing the technology as a gateway to AI‑driven mass surveillance.

Organizations within this ecosystem—such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, CodePink, the People’s Forum and the ANSWER Coalition—receive funding from Shanghai‑based tech entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham, whose sprawling nonprofit and media network has been the subject of congressional and federal scrutiny for possible foreign influence.

Social‑media analysis by Arken Intelligence shows that posts mentioning both Flock cameras and data centers jumped from 639 in the ten weeks preceding May 19 to 9,009 in the ten weeks afterward, a 14.1‑fold increase; of the posts whose political affiliation could be classified, 81 % originated from right‑wing, conservative or libertarian accounts.

Former NSA cybersecurity director Rob Joyce described the coordinated messaging as “cognitive warfare,” warning that foreign actors do not need Americans to become pro‑China, only to argue for outcomes that Beijing desires.

The convergence of left‑wing organizing, right‑wing amplification and high‑profile funding has turned what began as a local protest into a national narrative that pressures policymakers on privacy, energy consumption and the strategic control of emerging AI infrastructure.