@slackbastard.bsky.social:
Facebook = AI slop + CSAM (+ Nazis)?!
@rdnarang.bsky.social:
Meta has made it repeatedly clear that one of their growth strategies is sexualizing kids.
Mark Zuckerberg and his leadership team deserve to face personal liability for this, and the company deserves sanctions up to and including corporate dissolution
@cnn.com:
Meta must pay $567 million into a fund to remedy its role in a youth mental health crisis, on top of a previously decided $375 million in penalties, a New Mexico judge has ruled. cnn.it/4fMODHu
@tryangregory.bsky.social:
AI drinks your water and eats your brain.
@skipai.bsky.social:
This is happening far too often with AI. I think it’s time to haul in owners of said tech companies and demand what the fuck is going on and then press charges if they don’t immediately stop this from happening again.
As in prison time.
On a moral point of things, every person should be getting off Meta, Threads etc today, not tomorrow. Actually cancelling their accounts today.
jkarsh.bsky.social:
I’m sorry, but there’s just no affirmative case for this company to exist. I get it, groups have used and still use Facebook to organize, etc, but the inherent terribleness of this organization necessitates closing it down completely.
@kasper11.bsky.social:
This company should not exist any longer.
@kathiescall.bsky.social:
Life is so much better being off FB. Almost a year now. I dont miss that vile cesspool of algorithms and chaos.
@derekvandyke.bsky.social:
It’s crazy how Facebook has been the child porn capital of the internet for like multiple decades now and yet we haven’t put Mark Zuckerberg through some cenobite shit.
Even so, what do you MEAN they were running literal AI child porn in ads for months?
@carp68.bsky.social:
Zuckerberg is another one that belongs in prison.
@averylazygirl.bsky.social:
So NSFW artists who draw lewd art of adult characters get flagged for “inappropriate content” but an entire corporation can create AI generated CSAM and advertise it to millions of people across multiple platforms?
Arrests need to be made right now.
@auntyleilani.bsky.social:
Time to have all of us get of FB, stay off FB and find new ways of connecting and sharing with each other. Supporting another p3do is completely unacceptable. Boycott Meta, find new ways to connect! Get all the contact info you need and disconnect from this vile platform! Boycott meta!
@dinosaucy.bsky.social:
it sure is wild that every time CSAM ads and apps which generate revenue for giant tech corps only come down when an article is about to come to light
and weird how those same tech corps are pushing billions to make it law poor people must surrender ID to use the web, but no laws governing themself
With vile Nazi Carney all in regulating ordinary Canadians using the internet, but refusing to regulate the American tech bros sexually abusing women and kids, and or allowing men to use their slop to abuse women and kids. His corrupt slut Evan Solomon has already publicly stated he will not regulate AI, all to please kid rapist Trump and his “christian” pedo protectors.
lordbarham:
Carny is a confidence trickster as well. He seems to have successfully scammed the whole country.
@childrensrights.bsky.social:
So Meta knows which accounts are likely to be interested in this material?
And Meta has taken no action to ensure these users are not harassing, targeting, stalking, exploiting, following, or abusing children?
@ashofcenturiesad.bsky.social:
We’ve known this for years. There was even another story that broke a little while back about how Facebook could extremely accurately predict teen pregnancies and suicides, and then pushed ads at them.
Unfortunately, nothing actually happened. Zuck and Co. have legal carte blanche for it all.
@donnareigns.bsky.social:
Why can’t they be shut down????because too many police are hired for their misogyny and abuse, many politicians are abusive misogynists and sexual deviants as are too many of the judges they appoint, and the rich control the world, now, especially the tech billionaires after licking Trump’s diapered Pedo ass.
Meta ran CSAM ads
Over 50 ads with explicit AI-generated child abuse material ran for nine months across Meta platforms.
@blackamazon.bsky.social:
They found more CSAM on Meta and I am losing my mind because they keep portraying it as AI
But it’s a trust and safety issue
And it’s one that directly relates to the taxonomic programming of AI and failed project management
And yes how they categorize misogyny
@julietemckenna.bsky.social:
Your reminder that in the UK possession of CSAM is a strict liability criminal offence, prison sentence 2-3 years. No proof you sought the material is required. People have been convicted after receiving unsolicited images. This is a non-trivial risk using certain platforms now.
@flockofwords.bsky.social:
What the deep fried fuck?
@wcfk.bsky.social:
It’s pedophiles all the way down
@wired.com Aug 5, 2026:
Over the last nine months, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has run dozens of paid ads that include explicit AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and images of minors alongside sexually suggestive statements, according to details of the ads shared with WIRED.
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery, More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
The ads, which in some cases reached thousands of accounts, were targeted at people living in the United States, United Kingdom, and more than a dozen European countries.
More than 50 image and video ads containing abusive content were recently discovered in Meta’s ad transparency library by researchers at the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), with the listings showing some ads linked out to so-called nudify or undressing apps.
Meta’s ad library shows the ads as running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or Threads. The findings are the second time in recent weeks that paid ads linked to child sexual abuse material have been found on Meta’s platforms.
@geoffcasavant.bsky.social:
So the company knowingly published CSAM for profit. I’m pretty sure there are laws that are designed to deal with things like this. Let’s get some grand juries going!
@the4thpip.bsky.social:
Trump will protect themwhich is why in my view, the rich put kid rapist Trump into power, and because Trump will protect the kid and women abusing AI billionaires, Carney will too. I’m hoping for the European Union to do something.
@rexdoctor.bsky.social:
Instagram pushes such algorithms.
@kellybarnhill.bsky.social:
Creating child sex abuse materials is a crime. It does not matter if they used AI to do it. Possessing said material is also a crime. So too is distributing it. Meta’s entire leadership team should be prosecuted for these crimes, and Meta itself should be dissolved. No one will miss it.
@havadood.bsky.social:
Child pornography and child sexual abuse is all the rage among the elite. And we do NOTHING to stop them. We are all complicit in these crimes when we look away.
@yappydagger.bsky.social:
The only people looking away are Republicans and those still using Meta products—Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, etc.
Vulcan County residents challenge council rezoning decision for proposed data centre, Group alleges municipality did not follow own rules or respect environmental protections by Stephen Tipper, Aug 05, 2026, Calgary Herald
A group of Vulcan County residents is seeking a judicial review of a county council decision to rezone land where a local developer is proposing to build an AI data centre.
In June, Vulcan County council rezoned about 340 hectares to rural industrial from rural general to allow for the development of a data centre campus, which applicant Eric Steeves says would likely see a project of 1,000 megawatts dedicated to IT computation built over several phases.
But residents are now challenging the decision in the Alberta Court of King’s Bench, and seeking to have any future data centre proposal take place through “a lawful, transparent and procedurally fair process.”
“Municipalities need to follow their own bylaws, respect environmental protections that have been in place for decades and make decisions based on complete information through a process that is fair to everyone — not just the applicant,” David Anderson, a member of the Little Bow AI Data Centre Committee, said in a news release emailed to Postmedia.
Residents argue the development should not go ahead at the proposed location near Travers Reservoir due to the area being environmentally significant, the reservoir’s “critical” irrigation and recreation uses, and its proximity to a lakeside community, Little Bow Resort, and the Southern Alberta Bible Camp.
“It is outrageous that anyone would even consider building a data centre complex or any other industrial development in this unique area,” said Sylvia Farrant, another Little Bow AI Data Centre Committee member.
“You couldn’t pick a more inappropriate spot in the province if you tried.”
Residents say they also have concerns about the potential for fire, as well around the access and evacuation route, noise, lighting, and air and water pollution.
Vulcan County Reeve Jason Schneider said Wednesday the rural municipality will have its day before a judge to show what officials did and answer any questions.
“It’s an option available to anybody if they feel something wasn’t done correctly, and I guess we’ll see where it goes,” said Schneider.
Steeves said Wednesday he’s going to continue working on the project with local stakeholders and nearby villages such as Champion and Lomond, and Little Bow residents.
Steeves, who needs to get approvals for the project from the Alberta Utilities Commission and Alberta Electric System Operator, as well as from Vulcan County for a development permit, doesn’t foresee a judicial review of the rezoning decision causing major delays.
But it does add “another layer of uncertainty and complication,” he said.
“Little Bow residents are there for recreation and having a home that they can enjoy the peace and quiet, so they’re going to have a different perspective than a fifth-generation farmer that’s trying to bring the tax revenue base and jobs to his local area,” said Steeves.
“I respectfully can see where Little Bow Resort is coming from and I can see why they have concerns, and that’s fine.”
Diverse crowd of protesters join forces against proposed Meta data centre north of Edmonton, “We’re just opening ourselves up to complete exploitation from these companies.” by Eric Bowling, Aug 03, 2026, Edmonton Sun
Protesters from a wide variety of political backgrounds gathered in Sturgeon County on Sunday to share their displeasure toward a proposed Meta data centre in Sturgeon County.
The diverse crowd of more than 200 who braved the Prairie wind to make their voices heard at the county office in Morinville included moderates, environmental activists, Alberta separatists and even those calling themselves “revolutionary communists.”
Aside from an individual driving a loud car up and down 100 Street to give the crowd the middle finger, reception of the demonstration was positive. Even a man dressed head-to-toe in
“It’s defying my expectations,” said organizer Ben Baril. “For a rainy day on a long weekend, I wasn’t expecting this many people to turn up.”
Noting the province asked Albertans to unplug electric cars and turn off space heaters during a cold snap in 2024, Baril questioned how prepared the power grid is for the data centre to consume another gigawatt daily. He said he is skeptical Meta will actually pay the full cost of the $13-billion project as the province insists, adding that he has little faith in the Alberta Energy Regulator to enforce any rules the facility may be required to follow.
He also opposed the government’s assertion the proposed facility would “only” use the same amount of water as a typical golf course.
“Golf courses are famously pigs when it comes to water. They draw a ridiculous amount, it’s absurd to say that’s not much water,” he said. “One of the main reasons these data centres are coming to Alberta is we have a very unregulated energy grid.
“Other governments in Canada have started to put in regulations for these larger power draw projects. We’re just opening ourselves up to complete exploitation from these companies.”
How much is a gigawatt?
Mark Erickson, who said he spent more than 40 years working in the oilsands, said a gigawatt of electricity is not far off what the entire city of Edmonton uses in a day, adding that the Sturgeon County facility is not the only data centre in the works.
Using all that energy adds to the province’s already high carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
“This industrial site is going to use … three square miles. Think of shrinking the city of Edmonton into three square miles and using all that energy seven days a week, 24 hours for 365 days.”
‘People should be paying attention’
Trying to balance the concerns of her constituents with arguably the biggest investment her municipality’s ever seen is Sturgeon County Mayor Alanna Hnatiw.
“I think it’s quite an accomplishment to land Canada’s largest investment,” she said. “Obviously a big investment like this in a sector that folks are not accustomed to creates some concern, so we’re hearing that.”
Hnatiw said noise, power and water usage are among the main worries she’s heard from residents.
She said her council was told the facility would create 300 full-time jobs, along with 30 more needed for a new natural gas-fuelled power plant that would accompany the data centre.
She said the cost of electricity follows the price of natural gas, which is determined by the global market.
While noting that she couldn’t think of a government that would turn away a $13-billion investment, Hnatiw expressed her own reservations about where artificial intelligence is leading society.
“This is something that people should be paying attention to,” she said. “There are real concerns about data collection, data sovereignty and even generative AI. This is an inflection point in human history and people should be asking the highest orders of government, much like they did around the nuclear arms race, to set some guardrails in place.
“These are very serious matters. I appreciate people are concerned about the actual centres themselves, but I think they should turn their sights to the larger challenges about how society is going to maintain and contain AI so it’s additive to our lives and not destructive.
Hnatiw said it’s possible AI could be “the last invention of humankind,” adding that there are troubling questions about how governments keep ahead of the technology.
“If we start having AI train AI and it is trained behind walls where we can’t see what the training even consists of, we’ve lost control.
“So, I do have a lot of concerns on the effect this will have on people’s day-to-day lives and government’s ability to put people first over the dollars of this tech bubble. It will eventually burst and we don’t know where we’re at in that bubble.”
The province has published a website promoting and lying aboutdata centres.
Alberta is all in on AI data centres. A new poll suggests the public isn’t by Graison Foster, Jul 28, 2026, Edmonton Journal
Albertans don’t appear to be sold on data centres, and they aren’t overwhelmingly skeptical either, a new Leger survey suggests.
Forty-two per cent of those polled said they want a temporary pause on new approvals for large AI data centres until an independent public review examines the effects on electricity prices, grid reliability, water use and emissions.
Another 40 per cent said Alberta should keep considering and approving them under current rules, so the province does not lose investment and jobs to other jurisdictions. Leger describes opinion as nearly evenly divided.
Data centres use enormous amounts of electricity, and Leger asked who should pay for it. Almost nobody polled wants them treated like an ordinary customer. Just 12 per cent of respondents said a data centre should be able to hook into Alberta’s power grid and pay the same rates as any other big industrial user.
Half went further. The single-largest group, 29 per cent, said data centres should build or buy their own power and cover the full cost of connecting to the grid, close to what the province already requires. Another 22 per cent said Alberta should not approve of them at all. In between, a similar share would allow grid access only if operators paid the full cost of the power and the lines to carry it.
Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president at Leger, said respondents have very little to go on.
“We don’t actually have that many of them in full operation in Canada yet,” Enns said. “We need a few of these things to start operating and actually get a sense of what the operation is like, in terms of the demand for electricity, the implications for ratepayers, the demands on the environment.”
“You see very mushy opinions,” he said.
- ‘Responsible corporate citizen:’ Meta, Premier Danielle Smith defend $13B Alberta mega data centre planJFC! Meta abuses kids! That’s being a responsible corporate citizen? Nazi Smith lies far too evilly, serving fucking pedophiles and Nazi Meta to please Kid-raping Trump regime. Is Smith also a pedophile?
Enns is right about the shortage of working examples. Canada has five hyperscale data centres in operation, two in British Columbia and one each in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, with 96 more announced or under construction. Hyperscale means anything drawing 50 megawatts or more. Meta Platforms Inc.’s planned facility northeast of Edmonton would draw 20 times that.
Alberta accounts for roughly 90 per cent of the proposed capacity. Those figures come from a working paper published earlier this month by Alexander Carlo and Lyndsey Rolheiser, researchers at York University’s Schulich School of Business.
The same paper counts 194 active data centres across Canada, drawing 1.6 gigawatts between them. Meta’s would draw one gigawatt by itself.
Rolheiser said the figures are current as of the beginning of June and that Meta’s project alone would equal about two-thirds of Canada’s current total capacity.
“I can’t speak directly to what Albertans should take from it, other than this scale is incredibly large and the potential for negative local externalities is also large,” Rolheiser said.
“A transparent conversation about the actual positive local externalities needs to take place, as well as what guardrails the province and county are willing to put up to prevent the local costs from outweighing the benefits.”
On Meta’s project specifically, 44 per cent of those polled said they support it; 36 per cent said they oppose it, and 20 per cent had no view.
Respondents were then told what the project involves. It is expected to bring more than $13 billion in investment, over 3,000 construction workers at a peak and more than 300 permanent jobs once running. It would be a one-gigawatt facility powered by a new natural-gas plant, and Meta says it will pay for the energy and grid infrastructure it needs.
On those terms, 57 per cent called it a good deal for Alberta, against 27 per cent who called it a bad one.
Ask what worries them and the answer is the power bill. Electricity demand and power prices led the concern list, ahead of water use.
“There’s been a few data centres in the United States where, once they were up and running, suddenly there was a bit of an implication for local ratepayers in terms of their rates going up,” Enns said.
Investment in Alberta topped the benefits list at 19 per cent. The next most common answer, at 17 per cent, was that the projects deliver no real benefit at all. Long-term jobs finished at 10 per cent.
“These data centres aren’t big, heavy employee-driven operations,” Enns said. “That long-term employment, that’s not a really big selling feature.”
Divide Meta’s $13 billion by the 300 permanent jobs, and each one costs about $43 million.I do not believe the job numbers, big fat embellishments with which to con the concerned, just like frac’ers slather on communities they invade, con and pollute
Men and women split further apart. Among men polled, 59 per cent backed the Sturgeon County project. Among women, 30 per cent did.that’s an enormous difference. I think men are more supportive of AI crap because they like to use it to undress kids and women, without their consent, and make explicit porn videos of them. And I bet the men like to use Meta’s hideous spy glasses and other harmful tech.
Enns attributed the gap to two things. Women track environmental impacts more closely, he said, and they tend to run the household ledger.
“In a lot of households, women are responsible for the micro budget choices,” he said. “Squaring the utility bills at the end of the month, the cash flow in versus the cash flow out. We see it on the affordability side, that women are much more attuned to anything that might make things for the household more expensive.”
Rocky View County has already had this argument. Council rejected Kineticor Asset Management’s 1,100-acre campus near Balzac in a vote of six to one last September, citing the location and the impact on neighbouring farmers.
Asked about a comparable facility within 25 kilometres of their own home, respondents flipped to 41 per cent support and 44 per cent opposition.
The explanation falls to the government.
“The big numbers that get thrown around, $13 billion, or millions of dollars in tax revenues, they don’t stand on their own as being just a good thing,” Enns said. “Governments and local municipalities shouldn’t take for granted that the public is aware. I would argue they’re not.”
Leger surveyed 1,000 Alberta adults online July 17-19. Online panels cannot be assigned a margin of error, but a probability sample of this size would carry one of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Results were weighted by age, gender and region.
Councillors in rural county bordering Calgary vote to pause data centres, County waiting for anticipated new regulations by Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press, Jul 28, 2026, CBC
Councillors in a rural municipality bordering Calgary have voted to pause new data centre proposals while the local government works to pin down the rules that would apply to such developments.
“This landscape has changed dramatically over the last year,” Coun. Alison Whiting told a council meeting last week, a recording of which has been posted on Rocky View County’s website.
“We all know that the rules from above changed. General knowledge and understanding of the impacts of data centres have changed. Public perception and public engagement on it have changed.”
Whiting put forward a motion directing the county’s administration to place a “temporary moratorium” on new applications requesting that land be redesignated for data centre use.
The hiatus is to be in effect until the county completes its Emerging Sector Strategy, which is meant to guide the development of its tech and tourism industries, and it approves a new regulatory framework. Councillors told the meeting that work is expected to wrap up in the fall.
“This just gives us a moment to pause, get those questions answered and give us an actual framework to make decisions going forward,” Whiting told the meeting.
“We could deal with them on a case-by-case basis as they come forward, but I think if we don’t have any more knowledge when they come forth, we’re still on the back foot.”
Whiting’s motion passed 5-2.
“It looks good optically, but I think there’s some unintended consequences,” said Coun. Kevin Hanson, who voted against the motion.
“I think this is a bit of overreaction and I think might be just a little bit too strict … I like that fact that it wants to make us more accountable but I think it might unintentionally hinder some good smaller business in the county.”
Rocky View County forms a horseshoe of farmland and bedroom communities around Calgary’s northern, eastern and western limits, and it has been attracting strong interest from data centre developers.
The municipality has approved zoning for a Beacon AI Centers project near the hamlet of Indus, but last year council voted down another proposal from Kineticor near Balzac. The municipality is also weighing another proposal by Chinook Development LP near Langdon.
“Data centres represent a new and evolving form of development in Rocky View County,” said Rocky View County Reeve Sunny Samra in an emailed statement to CBC.
“Before considering additional proposals, Council wants to ensure future decisions are guided by a clear policy and regulatory framework informed by technical analysis and community input.”
Alberta epicentre of data centre boom, according to researchers
Data centres house the computing hardware needed to make a variety of tech applications run.including sexually abusing kids and women With breakneck growth in artificial intelligence, the facilities have been growing to mind-boggling proportions. So too has their thirst for power, with many investing in adjacent electrical plantsfuelled by frac’d natural gas, which means much of the water used to frac out that gas will be lost permanently to the hydrogeological cycle, removing it – permanently – from future use (unlike sewage waste which is reused over and over again) and drying an already too dry Alberta. big enough to power a city.
The Alberta government has been eager to attract so-called hyperscale developers to set up shop in the province, but local concerns have been raised about water use, noise and utility billsand air and water pollution which is extreme in volumes and toxicity; data centres main purpose is for mass surveillance of us ordinary citiezns – a gross waste of energy, water, pollution and endless harms. The province is prioritizing developers that provide their own power supply so as not to overstrain the grid.Smith and her Nazi UCP don’t give a shit about the power bills of ordinary Albertans, farmers, ranchers, small businesses, etc. They’re giving the AI tech billionaires frac’d gas which is much more polluting and harmful than electricity, and permanently removes much of the water injected to frac. Incredibly evil by Smith and her horrorshow UCP.
Earlier this month, tech giant Meta Platforms Inc. announced a $13-billion plan to build a data centre complex north of Edmonton, linked to a new gas-fired power plant to be built by Pembina Pipeline Corp., Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management.
In Alberta, local governments have authority over the zoning for the data centres themselves, while the Alberta Utilities Commission has oversight over any associated power operations.
Researchers at York University’s Schulich School of Business have been mapping Canada’s emerging data centre landscape and have found that Alberta is at the epicentre of the boom.
That province accounts for 92 per cent of planned new capacity, while it represents 10 per cent of facilities currently active, said their paper.
Aleks Trusk:
Kind of funny but not really some of the comments because apparently the AI data centre by Edmonton, which should have its own power Plant won’t have the power Plant built for the first five years so the taxpayer puts the bill
Casper Cane:
If Canadians built these data centres, Carney would give half of them to Trump
Gregory Wolf:
2km away? Someone needs to get over themselves.Data centres use toxic chemicals including cancer causing PFAS, their air pollution travels for miles, they contaminate groundwater and water wells with PFAS, heavy metals and biocides, and produce heat islands which increase temperatures by 2C up to 10 km away, not an impact any human, fish or animal ought to be forced to live with, or forced to die by if they can’t afford to move away, when we are already harmed by extreme heat and drought caused by human pollution induced climate change.
Proposed Wheatland County AI data centre hits close to home for concerned residents, Diode Ventures expects I bet the project will cost Alberta money and that there will be few jobs and no tax revenue the project to bring tax revenue and local jobs by Emma Marshall · CBC News · Jul 20, 2026
The sun slips behind acres of rolling hills, slowly painting Wheatland County with hues of orange and yellow before giving way to moonlight.
That’s the way it’s been for nearly 20 years on the porch of Dawn Parnell’s home, south of Strathmore, Alta.
“We like the quiet, we are a small community,” she said. “It’s a place that we can relax.” I like the quiet too, need it, and the dark night sky, but Encana’s frac’ing brought a grisly end to all that I love: my water, my quiet, the song birds and clean air, and blasted huge LED lights on all the compressors sucking up the shitty polluting cancer causing gas loaded with mystery frac chemicals
But a 3.5-million-square-foot artificial intelligence (AI) data centre may be moving in next door, only two kilometres from Parnell’s residence. I am very sorry, but the noise will drive all its neighbours insane
“This is rural life, so we are here to get away from all of that,” she said. “We don’t want this huge industrial development right next to homes.” I don’t either, but the crazy greedy Rosebud Racetrack for rich doctors with polluting million dollar noisy cars also plan to build a data centre. We are already hit with Encana’s compressor noise and toxic pollution.
- Another AI data centre proposed for rural Alberta
- Data centre proposal in Olds ‘consuming’ the lives of some living next door
Kansas-based Diode Ventures is seeking approval to develop Goldfinch Technology Park, an approximately 230-hectare AI data centre campus, in the southwest corner of the county. The project is meant to include multiple buildings constructed across three phases.
Diode Ventures says the project couldbut I bet it won’t. If they think so, they would not say “could” they’d say “will.” I bet it will cost Albertans in health harms, pollution, crimes of fraud and theft and sexual abuse caused by AI controlled by Nazi USA (the last thing that ought to be invading Canada are American fucking AI data centres) generate significant tax revenue and create hundreds of jobs.
Residents question impacts and process
Opposition dominated a July 7 public hearing, where 24 residents spoke against the proposal and one spoke in favour.
Residents raised concerns about noise, environmental impacts and what they describe as a lack of transparency.
“I’m very concerned about the noise,” Parnell said. “It’s 24/7. It’s been known to basically wreck people’s day-to-day living.”and will wreck your sleep too
“Who wants to live like that?”- Dawn Parnell, local resident
Neighbours also said they were concerned about the health and environmental effects of data centres and their emissions.
“You can’t just build a berm and plant some trees and these impacts go away,” said Emily Barnett, a resident of Carseland, Alta., located just under three kilometres from the proposed development. Encana raped my property and community with horrific noise that ran 24/7 because the company was too fucking cheap to complete the required noise impact assessments and too fucking cheap to build proper noise attenuation. The tech bros are just as cheap, and will not attenuate their inhumane noise makers, and will not mitigate their toxic air and water pollution because that costs money too. They only want profit. Encana installed a massive double wide, double high hay bale wall saying that would mitigate the noise, it just rolled over the wall, noise same as ever.
Barnett added that many questions remain unanswered.
“If you wanted to be a responsible development, you would give some information,” she said. “The transparency is not here.”Of course it’s not. If our counties and fed and prov politicos, and the data centre companies told us the truth, there’d be war and screaming NO NO NO NOs.
Rezoning and development
When plans for development were introduced in 2018, Barnett said the parcel of land was presented as light industrial land that could accommodate uses such as greenhouses and self-storage, while acting as a buffer between heavier industry and nearby homes.
Now, Diode Ventures is asking the county to designate that land as medium industrial to accommodate the proposed campus.JFC, you dirty fuckers.
“Which we never signed up for in the first place,” said Parnell.
“We were told there would be no impacts that would leave the boundary,” said Barnett. “The discretionary use of medium intensity does allow for moderate impacts to go beyond the boundary.”I learned directly over 20 years ago, to never believe a word an Alberta politician says, either in the provincial govt, or county/MD, and never to believe a word uttered by any company, especially if they are American. I only believe what I see. They all lie and pollute and break the law/their own rules too fucking much.
Barnett said the planning framework was put in place to reflect the needs of the community.
“If we have to change all of the framework to accommodate this project, then this isn’t the right project for the place,” said Barnett.
Council advocated rezoning
At the July 7 hearing, Wheatland County council approved the first two readings of two bylaws needed to move the proposal forward.
One would reclassify part of the Goldfinch Industrial Area structure plan from light to medium industrial. The second would change the site’s designation from agricultural to industrial land.
The bylaws have not yet taken effect, as Alberta municipalities must pass three readings before they become law. If ultimately approved, the changes would allow Diode Ventures to continue seeking development approvals.
- Meta data centre in Alberta to start operating before neighbouring power plant
- How Meta plans to cut down on water use at its massive Alberta data centre
“We are not obligated to approve anything in the future because of this decision, so I’m going to support this,” Coun. Shannon Leprise said at the hearing.
Coun. Glenn Koester said Diode addressed many of the concerns raised by residents.Do not trust one fucking word Koester says. He bends over backwords for polluters, and let Encana fucking frac our drinking water supply. He’ll do nothing to protect the ground water, air, land, and public health from the data centre monsters, most of them producing child and women abusing racist misogystic error laden stolen stupid crap.
“Their concerns were largely water consumption [and] noise,” Koester said. “And I thought Diode had answers for them.”JFC! You piece of shit. You know damned well from the many harms and contamination by Encana and other frac’ers, that the answers by Diode did not address the concerns of the soon to be harmed residents.
Both readings passed 5-2.
“I’m not in favour of this project. I won’t be voting for this. There was so much opposition, and that is on the industry,” said Coun. Donna Biggar.Thank you for your courage and integrity.
Council rejected a third bylaw, that would have closed part of Range Road 264 to accommodate the campus, due to traffic and safety concerns. While not required for the project, the decision means Diode will have to revise its plans.
Developer ‘committed to responsible development’ There’s the same old fucking evil deflection that frac’ers use all the fucking time, and our corrupt politicians. If Diode was truly committed, it would say “Diode will develop the data centre responsibly, and will run it responsibly.” Committments by companies are just hot air to get their permits, once they’re in, committments are gonzo, and it’s all just about profits and more profits, and I bet they’ll do same as many oil and gas companies, and just refuse to pay rent and their taxes. Data centres are massive money losers and are really about forcing mass surveillance on us all, Nazi Trump ICE surveillenace.
Under Alberta’s Artificial Intelligence Data Centre Strategy, large data centres are encouraged to supply their own power and use cooling systems that reduce water consumption. If they supply their own power via frac’d gas, there’s all the toxic pollution, noise and harms that comes with frac’ing, and which permanently loses much of the water injected and removes it from all future use – while Alberta is already experiencing exreme heat and drought from our pollution causing global warming. Cooling systems installed to reduce water use, still use water, and they add cancer causing PFAS. The centres must regularly refresh that toxic water, thus still using water, and the fuckers dump their PFAS contaminated used water into the environment without treating it (PFAS can’t be treated), and have already contamianted citizen water wells in the states with PFAS.
Diode’s proposal includes an independently funded power plant, located off-site, and an air-based cooling system that does not rely on water. air based still use PFAS, and during our ever increasing summer temperatures, I bet Diode will quickly change to water based cooling because the air based likely won’t work. Independently funded power plant? Encana/Ovintiv’s? Frac’d gas? If it’s frac’d gas based power, it will permanently remove masses of water — permanently! American data centre pimps lie, a lot, and quickly add massive numbers of extremely health harming diesel generators because their clean and green lies are just that, lies. Diode’s update page says they have not yet decided which cooling system they will use. Air cooled uses air conditioners which are also very noisy and polluting. And, the idiots say Alberta’s climate is cold. FFS. Climate change has destroyed our springs and summers – we get heat wave after heat wave during those months, and even our winters are warming up..
The company has submitted planning applications to Wheatland County, with more detailed site plans, noise studies and power generation plans to follow if council approves the current rezoning requests. I recommed no one believes their noise studies. I know well the many tricks companies use to create fraudulent, “our project will make no noise, and the little bit it does make, will be mitigated by our berms” noise studies. Diode’s website says an accoustic engineer will do the noise study, one of theirs?
In an emailed statement to CBC News, Diode said it has engaged with residents, businesses and county officials through the process to “help shape a project that has the potential to create meaningful jobs, strengthen the local economy and support long-term growth.”But, in my view, it won’t. AI is a big fat forced bubble created by child abusing fucking billionaires who are losing masses of money on data centres. The bubble will bust, and leave Wheatland Co with a big toxic piece of shit not paying its taxes or rent because it’s losing too much money.
“We remain committed to responsible development.”ha ha ha ha fucking ha. You don’t fool me you fuckers. Same fucking say nothing statement used by all the big polluters and health harmers.
But residents aren’t convinced. Bravo! I love smart Albertans, and love those who speak up even more.
“Responsible development, to me, would be agricultural-friendly businesses,” said Parnell. “I don’t know how a data centre of this magnitude is going to help us at all.”
“This does not meet the needs of any community outside of the tax base. We aren’t enriched by it,” said Barnett.
What’s next?
Council is scheduled to consider a third reading of the two rezoning bylaws on Aug. 11.
If passed, Diode Ventures will still need to continue pursuing final approvals before construction could begin.
Diode Ventures has said if its plans are approved, construction is expected to begin in mid-2028 and continue for six to eight years.
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