Norweigan-based Nammo, one of the largest ammunition manufacturers in Europe, had its growth stunted by cat videos on TikTok, according to its CEO.
Social media video-sharing platform TikTok’s data center is using up all the spare electricity in the area to store adorable videos, Morten Brandtzæg, Nammo CEO, recently told the Financial Times. “We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos."
With growing concern about the Chinese company TikTok’s access to data, the Financial Times asked Brandtzæg if he thought that TikTok’s data centers stopping the production of ammo in Europe was a pure coincidence. Brandtzæg responded “I will not rule out that it’s not by pure coincidence that this activity is close to a defense company. I can’t rule it out.”
Demand for ammunition
The Ukraine-Russia War and growing tensions worldwide have surged the market for weaponry, with Brandtzæg claiming that demand for artillery was up 1500%.
Despite the setback, Per-Gunnar Sveen, the head of the committee for business development in Innlandet, Norway, where the defense company is based, promised that “in this special matter, we will work to secure the supply Nammo needs to go forward with their plans and be able to expand its factory. It is in the national interest to secure their possibility for development.”
Cat videos are fueling an energy crisis
Simply sending a photo by email can emit about the same amount of planet-warming gases as driving a car for a kilometer, said Luigi Carafa, executive director of the Climate Infrastructure Partnership, a Barcelona-based non-profit.
“The problem is we don’t really see this, so we don’t perceive it as a problem at all,” he told Reuters.
“People can already reduce their carbon emissions today if they stop watching cat videos,” said Falsafi, the Lausanne professor, who heads the university’s research center for sustainable computing, EcoCloud.
“Unfortunately, they are neither aware of the issue nor incentivized to reduce carbon emissions.”