News that VoltaGrid — one of the companies behind a controversial data centre project — is sponsoring the annual Moonlight Bazaar has generated controversy, with some people calling for a boycott of the annual street festival.
VoltaGrid’s CEO has blamed “a significant portion” of the online criticism on foreign interference, but a cybersecurity expert based in New Brunswick has cast doubt on those claims.
Nathan Ough, president and CEO of the Texas-based natural gas company, told the Telegraph-Journal that VoltaGrid’s “proprietary algorithms” have suggested that a “significant portion of the online commentary appears to originate from individuals, or automated accounts, with IP addresses located outside North America.”
The article, published on Wednesday, didn’t include any supporting details or indicate whether the reporter pressed the executive for an explanation.
Cybersecurity expert David Shipley, head of Fredericton-based Beauceron Security, expressed skepticism about the claim.
“I’m not aware of any legal way to get an end user’s IP address from Facebook without Facebook itself providing it,” Shipley said in an email to the NB Media Co-op.
“You could, in theory, build an application to research every profile that comments and make inferences based on what public data is there, but I’d say its even hard for Facebook to do this, so I have big questions on an outside firm doing it.”
Shipley said the media has a responsibility to ask questions on the matter.
“I think media outlets should be asking for far more details on this proprietary algorithm,” he said.
He added that anyone with “evidence of mass foreign interference in Canadian domestic politics,” should share the data with Facebook and Canada’s intelligence agencies.
The NB Media Co-op reached out to VoltaGrid’s CEO with an interview request on Friday, but he didn’t respond by deadline.
Following the publication of the Telegraph-Journal story this week, a public response spread rapidly online, including a grassroots campaign inviting people to post videos of themselves showing that they are, in fact, real people.
The Moonlight Bazaar announced its headlining act — Canadian rapper k-os — on Facebook on July 8, saying that he would perform on the “new Moonlight Bazaar energy stage presented by VoltaGrid LLC.”
That company has partnered with BeaconAI in the development of a proposed hyperscale data centre, to be built in Lorneville, on the outskirts of Saint John.
The Facebook post had received over 550 comments by Friday, many of them expressing disappointment with the sponsorship announcement.
The planned data centre is part of a controversial industrial park expansion.
Last summer, Saint John Common Council granted final approval for the Spruce Lake Industrial Park expansion in Lorneville, voting unanimously for the project.
The decision followed a series of marathon public hearings sessions, where local residents expressed deep concern about potential damage to forests and wetlands, the safety of their residential well water, Indigenous title over the land, and other issues.
Over the past year, resistance to the planned data centre development has grown, with multiple grassroots community groups getting involved, such as Save Lorneville, Resist Data Center NB, and the Saint John Community Coalition.
Speaking to the NB Media Co-op, Shipley weighed in on their concerns.
“I think the public is rightfully concerned that AI data centres are being built not to benefit society as a whole, but a small group of companies and their backers,” he said.
“My concern as an IT professional is if people confuse regular data centres for these new massive AI complexes.”
Asked if he felt that elected officials understand the risks that hyperscale data centres pose to society, Shipley said he’s concerned that politicians “fall victim to the fear of missing out (FOMO) that AI hyperscalers have whipped up amongst policy makers.”
He added: “We can and should take time to weigh the pros and cons of AI data centre builds and give the public time to make up their mind. Trying to jam these developments through to a public that is at best wary and at worst becoming openly hostile, is a bad political idea.”
Raven Blue is an independent journalist, filmmaker, and community organizer based in Saint John.
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