As data center backlash grows across the country, Change.org sees a surge of related petitions in 2025 |
The rapid growth of data centers during the AI boom has been a dominating narrative of 2025—and, in many instances, not a popular one.
Across the country, communities have pushed back against data centers planned for their cities and states. Some have even turned to online petition sites to raise awareness and voice collective opposition to such projects. One site, the popular platform Change.org, said it has seen a significant spike in data center-related petitions in recent months.
Change.org saw at least 113 petitions that mentioned data centers in 2025, totaling around 50,000 signatures, the platform shared with Fast Company.
It’s not clear if that figure includes multiple petitions about the same data center project. These petitions also simply mention data centers—both for or against. But a cursory search shows that the vast majority were opposed to them.
For Change.org, the topic is new: In all of 2024, there was just one petition regarding a data center, in April.
No other petitions mentioned data centers until a year later, in April 2025, according to Change.org. Then, they began to tick up: Fewer than five petitions appeared each month until August, and then 12 were started in September,........