Data Center Protests Hit 15 European Countries as Activists Break Into Microsoft’s Amsterdam Site

The latest wave of data center protests in Europe began on Friday morning at a construction site on the edge of Amsterdam, where activists got past the fences of a Microsoft project, climbed a crane, set off flares and hung banners. It was the opening move in two days of coordinated action that organizers say will reach 15 European countries.

What happened at the Amsterdam site

The action was organized by Geef Tegengas, a Dutch group whose name translates as “Push Back.” Accounts of its size differ. Al Jazeera and Kotaku put the crowd at around 100 or more people, while the group itself said on social media that hundreds of supporters were blocking construction. The Associated Press reported that some protesters clashed with police.

Banners carried slogans including “FCK AI,” “Microsoft has got to go,” and messages referring to Gaza and Palestine. Pro-Palestinian activists joined the demonstrations, and a separate rally across the road supported the occupation, according to a Dutch journalist’s video cited by Business Insider. The same journalist said police feared chemicals might be used to damage the site. By late afternoon, local media reported that police were escorting people off the grounds, though some remained.

Geef Tegengas had targeted the site before. Business Insider reported that an action in June temporarily halted work there.

Microsoft said it was aware of the demonstration at the Westpoort Amsterdam site. A spokesperson said the company respects “the right to express those views peacefully” but does not condone unlawful actions or ones that endanger safety, and called the wellbeing of workers, staff and neighbors its first concern.

A mixed set of grievances

The protesters’ complaints cover a lot of ground. Group spokesperson Roos Molenaar said the facility would drain drinking water, a claim made by the group and not independently verified in the reports. The group also argues the project would strain the power grid during a housing shortage and give Microsoft more control over data and information flows. Activist Nathan Timmer told broadcaster AT5 that the site would serve what he called “AI slop,” surveillance and warfare, and vowed to keep protesting until construction stops. Those are the activists’ characterizations, and Microsoft’s response did not address them.

Kotaku noted that the messaging seemed split between people campaigning against data centers and people objecting to Israel’s military actions in Gaza. That blend suggests the Amsterdam action was about Microsoft’s wider conduct as well as infrastructure.

A Europe-wide movement

The Amsterdam occupation is one piece of “Stop Dirty Data Centres” events scheduled for November 6 and 7. Organizers told the AP that dozens of civil society and grassroots groups will take part in 15 countries, including Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and the U.K. Al Jazeera described the campaign as spanning 16 countries, so the exact tally varies by outlet. The shared demand is a moratorium on large-scale developments, aimed at the social and environmental concerns tied to energy-hungry facilities.

“There’s a gulf between where elected leaders are at in terms of buying into the hype about AI and where people are at,” said Owen Espley, coordinator of StopDirtyDataCentres.eu.

Elsewhere on Friday, about a dozen demonstrators gathered outside a data center on the outskirts of Berlin. Spokeswoman Caro Weber called for an end to what she described as blind construction across Germany. In Italy, opposition has been growing fastest in Lombardy, the country’s main digital infrastructure hub. On October 10, more than 1,000 people and representatives of about 40 local committees rallied in Milan in what organizers called the country’s first national demonstration against data centers. They demanded a moratorium and a national strategy for the industry.

Political and financial backdrop

The timing follows the U.S. midterm elections, which the AP said ushered in a wave of Democrats promising to clamp down on data centers. Kotaku, citing an AP survey, reported that 56 percent of respondents called the issue a crucial or major factor in their vote and 76 percent opposed a data center in their own community. Business Insider said data centers were a key midterm issue, with voters worried about power bills, water use and local impacts.

Money is still flowing in. PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook projects that Europe will draw $5.6 trillion in cumulative data center capital spending from 2026 through 2050, around 18% of the global total. The U.S. is forecast to attract $15.1 trillion.

Amsterdam is an unusual setting for the confrontation. Kotaku reported that the city said last year it would stop approving new data centers and expansions of approved ones, citing limits on space and power, and would not consider new proposals until 2030. The Microsoft project is already under construction, which is part of why activists see it as a place to stop work.

With another day of actions planned, the data center protests will test whether a movement that has so far been local and scattered can turn into sustained pressure on governments. Friday’s scenes in Amsterdam showed how heated that pressure can get.

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