Protesters forced their way into a data center construction site in Amsterdam’s Sloterdijk/Westpoort area on Friday, November 6, as part of a coordinated campaign across 15 European countries seeking a pause on major data center builds. Local authorities reported that officers detained between 150 and 200 people on trespassing charges after the group pushed past police lines.

The facility under development by Pure Data Centers Group is fully leased to Microsoft. Plans call for three buildings, each standing 85 meters tall, with a combined power capacity of 78 megawatts. Riot police were deployed to enforce a mayoral ban on the demonstration at the site.

Prior Occupation and Protester Aims

The same location had been occupied during an earlier protest in June that halted construction work for much of the day. One participant told a local broadcaster that the latest action aimed to stop the data center from being built.

Microsoft stated it was aware of the demonstration and issued the response through a company spokesperson.

Wider Scrutiny of Data Center Expansion

The incident occurs against growing concern over the electricity and water demands of large data centers. In the United States, a tougher regulatory climate is anticipated following recent midterm elections, where a number of Democratic candidates pledged measures to limit such facilities.

Similar pressure has appeared at the local level. Officials in Plattsburgh, New York, previously held a public hearing on a temporary land-use moratorium that would cover AI data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. These developments point to rising friction between the rapid expansion of computing infrastructure and community or regulatory limits on resource use.