GOP lawmaker Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said foreign actors are helping manufacture political divisions in the U.S. after X said it uncovered roughly 200,000 suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts, including hundreds targeting America’s artificial intelligence and energy debate.
Luna Warns Foreign Actors Fuelling Division
“X reveals it uncovered a Chinese bot farm of roughly 200,000 accounts,” Luna wrote Thursday. She added that “the divide that you’re seeing in this country is largely manufactured by foreign countries like China.”
X’s Global Government Affairs team on Thursday said that its Safety investigation identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts in the broader network. Crucially, X said about 200 of those accounts posted in ways that “could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”
The accounts claimed AI data centers were driving up household electricity bills and straining the grid. Some also circulated AI-generated cartoons portraying data-center operators as enriching themselves at the public’s expense, according to X.
Bot Network Targets AI Energy Debate
The campaign targeted a genuine policy flashpoint. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates data centers could account for 11.8% of U.S. electricity by 2030, with scenarios ranging from 9.5% to 15.3%. Concerns over those costs have already prompted debate over whether AI infrastructure is raising household power bills and who should pay for grid upgrades.
The Trump administration has also acknowledged the affordability risk. Its expanded Ratepayer Protection Pledge commits participating technology companies and data-center operators to cover new power and infrastructure costs rather than shift them to households. The White House says the program now covers about 80% of electricity delivered to U.S. homes and businesses.
US Intelligence Flags Broader Influence Threat
Separate U.S. intelligence findings lend context to Luna’s broader warning, though they do not establish Chinese government control of X’s newly identified network. The intelligence community previously said pro-China actors used fake social-media accounts and AI-generated personas to “sow divisions” over immigration, abortion and drug use.
Reuters also separately reported in February that researchers tracked another Chinese-linked influence network targeting political debates in several countries.
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