Activists Storm Microsoft Datacentre Site in Amsterdam
Activists broke into the construction site of a Microsoft datacentre in Amsterdam on Friday, in the middle of a Europe-wide protest against the AI boom. Datacentre building has become a flashpoint for public anger.
Break-in at Westpoort
Members of Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police and entered the site at Westpoort. Some climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment. They hung banners objecting to Microsoft's services to the Israeli military and to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Police told the Dutch broadcaster NOS they tried to stop the occupation and arrest protesters but could not, and that force was used. One officer was slightly injured. Protesters from both groups said police used force and teargas, and organisers and local media reported hundreds of people on each side of the fence.
Roos Molenaar of Geef Tegengas said the fight against big tech cannot be separated from the fight against oppression. She also said the datacentre was "gulping up our drinking water to make the rich even richer".
A coalition that stayed outside
A second protest, the pan-European "Stop Dirty Data Centres" campaign, targeted the same site. Its members stayed outside the perimeter fence. The coalition includes national branches of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and more than 100 groups joined a two-day series of protests demanding moratoria on new datacentres.
The coalition said it had neither coordinated nor promoted the break-in. It called it understandable that communities turn to a range of tactics when they cannot meaningfully take part in decisions. Campaign coordinator Owen Espley said communities across Europe are being shut out of decisions on datacentres, which he said are often planned with limited transparency.
Smaller protests took place in Bristol, at a datacentre in Berlin, outside the Polish parliament in Warsaw and in Zagreb's main square. More are expected on Saturday.
What Microsoft and the site owner said
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company knew of the demonstration and put the wellbeing of people on and near the site first. It understands people feel strongly about the project and respects their right to protest peacefully, but does not condone unlawful actions or ones that put safety at risk. Pure Data Centres, which owns the site, called entering a live construction site unlawful and dangerous. It asked those on site to leave safely and talk with the company about their concerns.
The politics behind the anger
Many European governments have backed new datacentres for the tax money they bring and to avoid falling behind the US and China in computing power, and some call the AI race a question of national security. The ecological fallout has alarmed some climate scientists, and frustration has grown over energy bills, job losses and tech companies' perceived role in undermining democracy.
In this week's US midterm elections, nearly every datacentre moratorium on the ballot was approved. Last week, an investigation by the Guardian and Investigate Europe found that some datacentre builders worked in dangerous conditions.
Source: the Guardian