As the global markets dive in reaction to the Democratic sweep in the U.S. midterm elections, fearful of a party willing to take a stand on the catastrophic spread of AI data centers, the question is being asked whether the public’s hatred of these environment-demolishing monstrosities could have played a part in how people voted. At the same time, protests against the development of town-sized data centers are springing up all around the world. In the latest example, as reported by Reuters (via The Verge), Microsoft’s construction site in Amsterdam was broken into this morning by around 100 people, some of whom climbed a crane and hung a banner reading “FCK AI.”
Others, according to The Verge, revealed a banner reading, “Microsoft powers genocide,” referencing the behemoth company’s ongoing support of the Netanyahu regime in Isreal, along with “free Palestine” and “Microsoft has got to go.”
Footage of the protesters has been uploaded to YouTube, showing people scaling the gates and piling into Microsoft’s construction site, with some scaling a crane to strap a makeshift banner reading “FCK AI” down its main arm, while others march and chant, the messaging seemingly split between those campaigning against data centers and those objecting to the Israeli attacks on Palestine.
Center of rage
Amsterdam has already taken a harder line than many other areas regarding the building of data centers, announcing last year that it would no longer approve projects submitted after the end of 2023, nor the expansion of previously approved sites, citing that the city lacks the space and the power to support them. The city said it wouldn’t start considering new pitches until 2030.
Meanwhile, polling suggests that the widespread construction of data centers in the U.S. was a factor in how people voted during the midterms. 56 percent of those surveyed by AP reported that the topic was a “crucial or major” factor in who they voted for, and 76 percent were against data centers being built within their own community.
