Protesters enter Microsoft data center construction site in Amsterdam

Protesters entered the construction site of a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam, according to The Verge. Members of the Geef Tegengas group helped organize the protest against plans for three 85-meter data center towers on the outskirts of the city.

Reuters reported that around 100 people got onto the site. Some climbed a crane and placed a “fuck AI” banner. Protesters also unfurled a banner reading “Microsoft powers genocide” and chanted “Microsoft has got to go” and “free palestine.”

The protest comes after Amsterdam banned new data centers until 2030, following a temporary stop announced at the end of 2023. The project was planned as far back as 2016, before the ban, and Microsoft will be its sole tenant. British developer Pure Data Centres is building the site. The Verge reports that the project navigated loopholes to reach construction.

The Amsterdam protest came in the same week activists staged a mock Israeli military checkpoint outside a Microsoft data center in Dublin. The article describes the actions as part of a wave of data center protests across Europe. It also reports that Microsoft abandoned the UK’s largest data center project last month after local electricity grid officials said the site would not receive power until the 2030s.