Contra Benn Jordan, data center (and all) sub-audible infrasound issues are fake

Andy Masley, a tech-and-environment writer, has published a sharp takedown of a viral YouTube video that links data centers to harmful inaudible infrasound. It has been reported that the video — Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons by Benn Jordan — is one of the most-watched pieces about data centers in 2026. Masley argues the video's claims are unsupported, and that the studies and anecdotes it leans on are either misread or terribly designed.

What Masley found

Masley walks through the video moment by moment and concludes it promotes a modern folk theory: that inaudible infrasound from data centers can physically sicken people. He says the presenter frames the piece with scientific gear, sympathetic interviews, and selective citations — a polished look that masks sloppy science. According to Masley, every study Jordan invokes either contradicts his conclusion or is too methodologically weak to bear the weight of such a dramatic claim. Masley even calls it, bluntly, a “high-status Alex Jones video” — a stingy epithet, but one he uses to underline how plausible production values can lend credibility to nonsense.

Why it matters

Noise pollution from data centers is a real issue; Masley does not deny that. But he warns against smuggling in pseudoscience — in this case, the old infrasound scare that once dogged wind turbines — to turn a technical nuisance into a moral panic. Can inaudible waves make people ill? Allegedly, some activists and creators say yes. The current best evidence, Masley contends, does not support that leap.

If nothing else, the episode is a tidy case study in how high-production misinformation spreads: slick visuals, emotional testimony, and a few misused papers can go a long way. Read it as a reminder: look past the polish, check the methods, and ask the awkward questions. Trust, but verify — especially when "science" is doing the heavy lifting for a scary narrative.

Sources: andymasley.com, Hacker News