The secrecy question is the crux. Negotiations have often been conducted with the public knowing a data centre is coming but not who will occupy it, which Sean O'Kane argued fuels disputes over property values, electricity bills and water usage. He drew a parallel to Uber's rapid mid-2010s expansion, when secret negotiations with local governments, including one over tax subsidies near Orlando, let the company ask for far more than was publicly visible.

Rebecca Bellan was sceptical that the recent wave of data centre moratoriums will have a lasting effect, noting they typically last only a year or two while the facilities themselves are not due online for two to five years, with buildouts already delayed by zoning and funding hurdles. Anthony Ha pointed out that New York's one-year moratorium on permits for large projects is technically tied to the state finalising an environmental review process, leaving some wiggle room, and that such pauses are often framed as time to study the issue rather than opposition in principle.

Still, Ha argued that data centre backers are clearly worried, citing what he called unhinged tweets from figures including Donald Trump and David Sacks. O'Kane suggested a big driver of the backlash is the industry's poor communication, saying it is constantly frustrated that most people cannot envision the technology being useful to them. Whether Amazon's transparency pledge changes minds remains to be seen, with O'Kane noting that people are pretty entrenched right now.