Democrats have taken both chambers of Congress in this week’s midterm elections, and the results have thrust a question into the open: will the new majority actually move against Big Tech? For tech critics, the answer starts with two issues that dominated the campaign — Big Tech privacy and data centers.
An election that put technology on the ballot
Artificial intelligence ran through the national debate alongside affordability and the Iran war, and candidates in both parties — Democrats more than most, but a handful of Republicans too — campaigned against its spread. The backlash was concrete at the ballot box: voters turned down more than 40 local measures that would have backed data center projects, a rare national consensus on a question usually settled in city councils and statehouses.
Alan Butler, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, framed the outcome as a clear signal that voters are frustrated with tech companies’ influence over politics and their surveillance of families and communities. Tech critics argue the results give newly elected officials momentum — though whether they use it is another matter.
Data centers become the flashpoint
The facilities that power AI were the most visible tech issue of the cycle. They require enormous amounts of water and electricity, and nearby residents have raised concerns about health and environmental effects. Paris Marx, host of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast, expects the most likely action to come at the local and state level in the near term, including moratoriums like New York’s first-in-the-nation pause on new construction implemented earlier this year. Legislators, he says, will need to keep setting environmental rules, managing electricity demand and securing real community benefits.
Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, describes data centers as a symptom of a larger problem: tech companies so focused on winning the global AI race that the impact on ordinary people gets lost. The election results and the public backlash, he says, amount to a repudiation of that approach.
Why privacy comes first
If Congress makes technology a legislative priority, experts say it should begin with consumer data privacy. The US has no comprehensive federal privacy law, and data collection is central to how many tech companies make money. India McKinney, director of federal affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argues that privacy is the natural place for an emboldened Congress to start.
Kinsey Fabrizio, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, sees room for bipartisan progress on a national privacy law. Recent headlines have added urgency: automatic license plate readers such as Flock cameras have drawn public concern after cases in which law enforcement officers misused the technology to stalk and harass people.
Privacy is also a central worry with AI. Jain notes that AI companies are data-hungry and that users have little control over what happens to their information — whether it is used to train models or handed to law enforcement, employers or data brokers. A privacy law would not solve every tech policy question, but it would give lawmakers a foundation for the rest.
The stakes extend beyond the largest platforms. Data brokers, an industry worth more than $277 billion, collect and sell personal information to companies consumers never deal with. McKinney points to surveillance pricing and to federal agencies buying data that would otherwise require a warrant as consequences of that business model.
State privacy laws already exist, but a federal standard would apply uniformly across the country. Fabrizio argues that a patchwork of conflicting state rules makes life harder for startups and small businesses and undermines the goal of leading in AI.
Bipartisan distrust, and a narrow window
Despite Democratic control of both chambers, many of the most contested tech issues have support from both parties, and that has already produced legislation — the Take It Down Act passed nearly unanimously in 2025. The challenge for lawmakers will be to keep their focus on present-day harms and basic protections rather than whatever dystopian prediction is trending.
Marx warns that companies will keep pushing Congress to frame AI regulation around so-called existential risks — claims that advanced AI might end humanity — instead of addressing data centers and the harms people face now. Butler argues that elected representatives have not only the power but the obligation to restrain powerful corporations on behalf of their constituents.
Money was everywhere this cycle. Elon Musk reportedly spent nearly half a billion dollars backing Republican candidates, including Ken Paxton in Texas, who lost to Democrat James Talarico by 12 percentage points. Even so, the experts who spoke with CNET said the results reflected a genuine desire among voters to check tech companies.
Whether that desire becomes law depends on how willing the new Congress is to confront Big Tech. As McKinney put it, if a newly emboldened electorate is ready to stand up to bullies, that is the place to begin.
