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Days of action on data centers: Against AI, capitalism and environmental destruction
Last weekend, activists across Europe protested against the data center boom. The groups involved are diverse, but united by one demand: They want a construction freeze f
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Last weekend, activists across Europe protested against the data center boom. The groups involved are diverse, but united by one demand: They want a stop to construction of large data centers.
On Friday, hundreds of people gained access to the construction site of a Microsoft data center in Amsterdam. To the action hadhttps://www.geeftegengas.org/en/geef-tegengas-en/">GeefTegengascalled. Activists from the group climbed onto the roof and lit Bengal torches. Up to 200 demonstrators were subsequently arrested, dpa reported.
Footage from the rally shows hundreds of demonstrators with signs. They then criticize the industry's lack of transparency and its consequences for the environment, but are also directed against AI technology itself. "Right to information!", "We say no to AI!" and “Don’t feed the AI!” are what the signs say.
The temporary occupation was one of around a dozen actions that took place in European cities last weekend as part of the Europe-wide campaignhttps://stopdirtydatacentres.eu/">StopDirty data centers.For the first umbrella campaign of its kind, an alliance of more than 100 groups from all over Europe is mobilizing to protest.
The forms of protest and the motives behind them differ. But all groups are calling for a Europe-wide moratorium on data centers. The construction projects should be paused until there is a democratic framework for deciding which projects are needed and how they should be implemented.
The largest investment in human history
The expansion of data centers could become the largest infrastructure investment in human history, making it larger than the rail or telecommunications boom.https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunicati...McKinsey6.25 trillion euros will be spent on data centers worldwide by 2030.
Data centers have therefore become a central issue in the US midterm election campaigns. In Europe, many groups see this as an opportunity to step up their protest against a powerful and influential sector: the AI industry. It is largely invisible, its activities take place in virtual clouds that run on servers in these same data centers.
Geef Tegengas, the group behind the action against Microsoft,https://www.doorbraak.eu/6-november-amsterdam-actie-tegen-datacenter-van..., the US hyperscaler's site will consume as much electricity as all Amsterdam households combined and delay the construction of 30,000 apartments. The group is committed to opposing fossil fuels, extractivism and militarization and relies on disruption as a form of protest.
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The activists are accused of stealing items and damaging property. "We understand that this project evokes strong emotions and respect people's right to express their views peacefully. However, we do not tolerate actions that violate the law or endanger people's safety," Microsoft told Dutch public broadcasterhttps://nos.nl/artikel/2638275-me-ingezet-bij-ontruiming-bezet-bouwterre...with.
Doesn’t Europe need more data centers?
https://about.bnef.com/insights/data-centers/emea-data-center-outlook-5-...estimates the EU's data center capacity at around 9 gigawatts of IT load. That's less thanhttps://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/insights/americas-data-center-update...Quarter of the capacity in the US. Given the rapid expansion of data centers in the US, even the EU's most optimistic goal of tripling their capacity is unlikely to be enough to close this gap.
So is Europe falling behind? Nikolas Becker, Head of Politics and Science at thehttps://gi.de/">Societyfor computer science, don't believe that. "I think it's good that Germany and Europe didn't go along with everything. They didn't sink capital unnecessarily. They didn't make any rookie mistakes," he told netzpolitik.org on Saturday at a networking conference of groups campaigning against data centers.
"I think the construction of data centers is fundamentally necessary in order to be sovereign. But it should be done carefully and must be thought of in terms of the application. What do we want to use AI for and what do we need for it and what not?" added Becker.
Some organizers of Stop Dirty Data Centers fundamentally reject the construction of additional data centers. "In Germany, only 35 percent of the data center capacity is used. In the Netherlands it is similar: there it is only around 30 percent. So why build more?" said Max Schulze, director ofhttps://leitmotiv.digital/">Leitmotiv, a Dutch digital rights organization, told netzpolitik.org.
Resistance is organizing in Germany
On Saturday, more than 130 participants came to the Impact Hub in Berlin under the mottohttps://grueneliga.de/de/themen-projekte/rechenzentren/wider-gegen-...“Network resistance – stop data centers!”together. The event was aimed at people who are critical of the current expansion of data centers in Germany. Organizers speak of an “early phase” of the movement in which groups from different backgrounds are forming alliances.
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At the meeting, groups that rely on blockades and sabotage shared experiences and concerns, as did initiatives organized around municipal committee meetings.
“We want the future of our digital infrastructure to be decided democratically and not solely based on the interests of large technology companies and investors,” says Thomas Tennhardt, Federal Chairman of thehttps://grueneliga.de/de/themen-projekte/rechenzentren/wider-gegen-...target="_blank">Green League, who organized the event.
While the Green League primarily emphasizes environmental concerns, the co-organizer positions itselfhttps://noderesist.de/"target="_blank">Nodes of Resistanceclearly against the technology itself.
"For the areas where pattern recognition can be useful, all this computing power is not needed. Large language models are just a hype that we are currently experiencing. They are being promoted as a panacea to solve every social problem and as the next step in human evolution," said Malte Engeler, press spokesman for Nodes of Resistance.
"Now this hype is being used to divert money from social security and from the construction of hospitals and schools. Ultimately, AI is a class question: it replaces the weakest in the labor market and is used to experiment on those most in need of protection," Engeler continued.
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