Activists stage protests against European AI data centres in Amsterdam

Several hundred activists occupied the site of a planned Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam as part of a two-day protest taking place across Europe, France 24 reported. Demonstrators broke into the construction site on 6 November 2026 to protest against environmental resource use and political issues, according to earlier reports from FTMQ News. [1][4]

Members of the group Geef Tegengas helped organize the Amsterdam demonstration against three planned 85-metre towers, FTMQ News reported previously. Citing Reuters reports, FTMQ News noted that around 100 people managed to enter the construction site. Local residents expressed concern that the proposed facility will drain local energy and water resources. [4]

France 24 reported that Democratic politicians in the United States are calling for tighter regulation of artificial intelligence data centres, describing it as a concern shared across Europe. An artificial intelligence data centre is a specialized facility designed for intensive tasks such as training and running machine learning models. [1][2]

Public scrutiny of technology facilities has increased in recent months. As FTMQ News reported earlier, Amazon Web Services stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies when seeking approvals for new data centres, following growing public backlash. [3]