AI Data Center Builder Sued Its Own Critics and Journalists, Lost Every Case as a SLAPP

Sebastian Rucci and his Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing want to build California’s largest AI data center, one thirsty enough to drink 750,000 gallons of water a day in a drought-stricken county, and when a resident, a local nonprofit, and KPBS reporter Kori Suzuki dared to say so out loud, Rucci sued them all for defamation. Judge Jeffrey Jones found Rucci failed to meet the burden of proof and struck the complaint against resident Jake Tison under California’s Anti-SLAPP statute, the same fate a separate judge handed the claims against KPBS, who ruled none of the reporting was even incorrect. The whole point of a SLAPP is to bleed critics dry with legal bills until they shut up, so watching every count collapse is the rare courtroom outcome worth a screenshot. Tison, unbowed, told a July 18 protest crowd that the developer had become a gift, because the lawsuit only made him talk louder. Calexico Chronicle on the struck data center suits