Indiana CPC Resolution, Data Center Disconnections, and Australian Fact-Checking

Medical Experts Push Back on Indiana Resolution Supporting Crisis Pregnancy Centers

This week, the Indiana state Senate passed a resolution “strongly encouraging” state and federal agencies to fund anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) without imposing restrictions on their “mission or religious integrity”—essentially arguing that CPCs should be allowed to spend taxpayer dollars without offering women comprehensive, evidence-based reproductive care. Though abortion has been banned in Indiana since 2023, the legislature continues to send money to CPCs through an organization called Real Alternatives, which operates with little oversight.

“I’ve had several patients who have come to me presenting with an ultrasound where they think that they received actual medical care and they did not,” said licensed OBGYN Dr. Amy Caldwell, who testified against the resolution in an earlier hearing. “They’re well into their second trimester (but) they haven’t been taking the appropriate medications and they haven’t had the appropriate screenings”

Real Alternatives also administered an anti-abortion program in Pennsylvania, until the state cut them off in 2023. When it came to providing care, the organization did not allow its grant recipients to even discuss contraception with patients, as CfA noted in a 2020 letter to Pennsylvania’s then-Governor Thomas Wolf. After reviewing thousands of pages of records, CfA also found that Real Alternatives may have violated Pennsylvania law by skimming fees from subcontractors and using taxpayer money to fund its legal battles.

Texas Data Center Disconnections Responsible for Over Thirty “Near-Miss” Grid Incidents

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that data centers had triggered over 30 “near-miss” grid incidents in Texas by suddenly switching to on-site generators—a temporary measure taken to protect hardware from power fluctuations. When big customers like data centers go off-line, they cause a surge of unused power in the grid that can threaten the entire system’s stability. The incidents were documented in disclosures from the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which serves as the state’s grid operator. In a recent report, ERCOT warned that demand for energy in Texas could far outpace supply, as more data centers for crypto mining and AI are brought online.

Yesterday, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would give ERCOT a “kill switch” for large load customers during emergencies, in order to prioritize the delivery of energy to homes. Data centers would also be required to share information about their backup generation capacity. Industry lobbyists have opposed the bill, arguing that the temporary shutdown of data centers could “threaten national security.”

Separate ERCOT initiatives have created massive handouts for data centers. In 2022, CfA’s Tech Transparency Project published a report on a program that allowed large customers to buy energy at significant discounts and sell it back to the grid during periods of high demand. The deals allowed crypto mining companies to rake in tens of millions of dollars, while regular ratepayers faced steep bills and deadly outages.

Meta Continues to Work with Fact-Checkers in Australia

This week, Meta published a blog post announcing that it would use fact-checkers to restrict the circulation of false information related to Australia’s upcoming elections, just days after Meta Head of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan denounced the practice as a “censorship tool” run by “so-called experts.” While Meta is not required to address misinformation under Australian law, the nation moved aggressively to regulate platforms in other areas, forcing them to compensate news publishers for their content and banning the creation of accounts by children under than 16. Meta has taken a very different approach to content moderation in the United States, where fact-checking will be replaced by a “Community Notes” system that doesn’t limit the reach of posts.

Meanwhile, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is urging the Trump Administration to attack “foreign unfair trading practices,” submitting a laundry list of complaints on behalf of its members. The targeted regulations include Australia’s news bargaining code, as well as European data privacy laws. Meta might comply with these laws in public, but its trade associations are clearly working behind the scenes to weaponize US trade dominance against countries that have taken a more proactive approach to online safety.

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