A Tennessee city hall meeting over Elon Musk’s controversial data centers spiraled into chaos, with punches reportedly thrown as furious residents branded council members ‘sellouts.’
The Memphis City Council voted Tuesday to postpone the third and final vote on a proposed pause to new data center development, triggering an explosive scene that saw council members ushered out as police flooded the building.
Shocking footage captured a furious crowd shouting at council members, with residents using bullhorns to lead chants of ‘bought and sold,’ ‘sellouts’ and ‘no justice, no peace.’
At one point, as residents rose from the gallery and continued shouting, a council member was caught on a hot mic asking, ‘Is that a bullhorn?’
The remainder of the meeting was suspended as police presence tripled, while advocates marched outside arm in arm, continuing to protest the vote just outside the building’s front doors.
Among them was Indivisible Memphis, which shared a post on Instagram days earlier declaring: ‘Memphis belongs to Memphis, not Elon Musk.’
What began with optimism that the proposed ordinance would pass its third reading ultimately ended with council members scheduling a work session for Thursday, October 8, to hash out the remaining details.
If eventually passed, the proposed moratorium would pause data center development for up to a year, or until the city adopts a framework for regulating future projects.
A Tennessee city hall meeting over Elon Musk’s controversial data centers spiraled into chaos on Tuesday
The Memphis City Council voted to postpone the third and final vote on a proposed pause to new data center development, triggering an explosive scene that saw council members ushered out as police flooded the building
Before the measure was held for a future meeting, Councilmember Michalyn Easter-Thomas proposed extending the moratorium from 12 to 18 months, according to Local Memphis.
Several proposals that could replace the moratorium with permanent rules for data centers are already moving through committee. One, drafted by City Attorney Allen Wade, combines parts of several other proposals into one ordinance.
During a previous meeting, Council Chair Jana Swearengen-Washington clarified that the ordinance was not a ‘ban,’ but a temporary pause, according to the Memphis Flyer.
She added that the ordinance was not a rejection of economic development, but a way to give the city and community both ‘time and a voice.’
Council member JB Smiley Jr said: ‘The moratorium is a temporary pause intended to give the City time to study the issues, engage the community, assess potential impacts, and develop permanent regulations for large-scale data centers and high-density computing facilities.’
Musk’s Memphis footprint has grown rapidly over the past two years, beginning with construction of the Colossus 1 data center just north of Southaven in 2024.
By January 2026, two more data centers had been announced, and in July the billionaire quietly revealed another, Minihard, in a reply to a post on X.
The moves have sparked an outcry, with residents demanding that the temporary moratorium be passed.
Shocking footage captured a furious crowd shouting at council members, with residents using bullhorns to lead chants of ‘bought and sold,’ ‘sellouts’ and ‘no justice, no peace’
At one point, as residents rose from the gallery and continued shouting, a council member was caught on a hot mic asking, ‘Is that a bullhorn?’
‘Data centers are churning out emissions, disrupting folks’ quality of life with piercing noise and are drawing millions of gallons of water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer,’ environmental justice advocate Richard Massey previously told the Memphis Flyer.
He stressed the need for a moratorium to protect marginalized communities, citing Southwest Memphis’ history of environmental racism and arguing that data centers continue a pattern of environmental injustice.
‘We need a data center moratorium so we can close the floodgates and effectively put real safeguards in place that protect our most vulnerable communities,’ Massey added.
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