El Centro resident arrested for allegedly making online threats against data center developer

A 22-year-old El Centro resident is facing a felony charge after allegedly posting threats of violence on social media against a local data center developer.

In a statement Friday, county officials accused the man, who they identified as Diego Joe, of making explicit threats against the developer in a Facebook group. The statement did not name the developer and did not specify what those threats were.

Imperial County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Joe “without incident” on Friday near the El Centro Library, the county statement said. He is being held in the Imperial County Jail on $20,000 bail, according to the county’s statement.

Imperial County District Attorney George Marquez said his office had reviewed the case and was in the process of filing criminal charges Monday morning. Marquez said his office expected to charge Joe with making criminal threats, a felony, and misdemeanor online harassment.

The arrest comes amid heated resistance to a massive AI data center complex moving forward in the heart of the Imperial Valley.

Some officials have been trying to lower the temperature of the debate over the project. At a community town hall last week, Imperial City Manager Dennis Morita urged residents to discourage anyone considering resorting to violence.

“Should you have a conversation with somebody who would consider that as a strategy, I would encourage you to encourage them to engage as you all have seen fit to do tonight,” Morita said.

Kori Suzuki

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KPBS

For more than a year, Huntington Beach-based developer Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing (IVCM) has been trying to build a 950,000-square-foot data center next to a residential neighborhood in the city of Imperial.

Many Imperial Valley residents have raised fears that the company and county officials are advancing a project that will strain the rural county’s power grid, water supply and air quality while providing little benefit for the people who live here.

Sebastian Rucci, the company’s CEO, has taken to public meetings and social media, including local Facebook groups, to defend the project.

Rucci has argued that the project will provide benefits in the form of tax revenue, local demand for renewable energy and construction work. He has also said the company will take steps to reduce the project’s environmental footprint.

It’s unclear whether Rucci was the developer named in the county’s statement. He did not respond to a KPBS request for comment Monday morning.

The rapid expansion of the artificial intelligence industry has drawn intense and growing backlash nationwide, including some acts of violence.

Earlier this month, someone fired 13 gunshots at the front door of a city councilmember in Indiana. They left behind a note reading “No Data Centers” on the doorstep.

Days later, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco. The man also tried to break into OpenAI’s headquarters that morning with a jug of kerosene, a lighter and an anti-AI manifesto.

Kori Suzuki

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KPBS

Even before Friday’s arrest, some in the Imperial Valley were saying the debate over the data center had crossed a line.

In an editorial in the Desert Review last week, County Chair Peggy Price said she felt the conversation had at times escalated to “threats and calls for violence” — particularly on social media.

“Some statements may be interpreted in more than one way, but the implications are difficult to ignore,” Price wrote. “Posts such as ‘Price and Kelley are not going to survive this’ carry a concerning undertone.”

Supporters of the project have also invoked dire language in recent weeks. Last month, an IVCM spokesperson and candidate for a local utility board called the coalition of residents who oppose the project a “Satanic Cult” on Facebook.

Some opponents of the data center project have also raised their own concerns about the county’s escalating use of law enforcement.

Earlier this month, several deputies dragged a protester out of the Board of Supervisors’ chambers and arrested him for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. An El Centro resident who witnessed part of the arrest, Jacob Nicholas Rodriguez, called the charges “intimidation.”

“What I witnessed was a county using its police power to send a message to anyone else thinking about opening their mouth,” wrote Rodriguez in an editorial of his own, which ran days before the county announced the arrest.