“Stop Dirty Data Centres” is calling for an immediate moratorium on large data centers in Europe. The initiative is planning protests and community-led actions on November 6 and 7. Actions are coordinated across at least nine European capitals, including Berlin.
Behind the protests is a new pan-European initiative called Stop Dirty Data Centres. Spanning more than 100 groups across Europe, it is the first time that action against data centers has been synchronized across the continent.
EU wants to triple capacity
The protests come as the European Union pushes to expand its digital infrastructure. In its AI Continent Action Plan, published in April 2025, the European Commission set a goal of at least tripling the EU’s data center capacity within five to seven years.
Communities and civil society groups are increasingly worried about plans to fast-track these projects. In recent months, local and national movements have formed near planned data center sites across Europe. They have brought to public attention the debate about the kind of digital infrastructure society needs, where it should be built, and under what conditions, especially environmental ones.
Lessons from around the world
Stop Dirty Data Centres is calling for the use of moratorium as a mechanism to force a rethink of what it calls the “harms” caused by data centers. „Data centers are worsening the cost of living crisis for Europeans everywhere, locking in dependency on US tech power and fossil fuels, while sacrificing democracy and climate goals“, says Michelle Thorne, Director of Strategy at the Green Web Foundation and one of the organizers of the Berlin protest.
A moratorium is a legally authorized temporary pause, suspension, or delay of a specific activity. For example, authorities can pause permissions for constructing or operating a data center for a set period, or until certain conditions are met.
Protest against data centers has been a global phenomenon in recent years, from Chile to India.
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Grassroots opposition has already proved moratoriums effective in the United States. Local groups there have blocked or delayed data center projects worth over $300 billion (€268 billion) since the start of 2025. That’s according to Data Center Watch, a project of the US research firm 10a Labs.
In 2019, Singapore stopped approving new data centers. The city-state ended its pause in 2022 with conditions led to being more selective about future projects.
Actions planned in Berlin
In Berlin, activists plan a rally on Friday afternoon in the district of Mariendorf, where a data center is planned. Meeting point for the demonstration is Lankwitzstraße 45 in 12107 Berlin at 13:00 pm.
On Saturday, the environmental group Grüne Liga and the initiative “Nodes of Resistance” will hold a conference titled “Connect the resistance – stop data centers!”.
At the same time, the digital rights NGO AlgorithmWatch has launched a mass email campaign against what it calls “climate destruction fueled by AI hype.” The campaign comes as the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, prepares to vote this month on relaxing the Energy Efficiency Act.
Over the summer, the group collected more than 160,000 signatures for a petition against the government’s proposed reforms. Lawmakers from the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Left Party accepted the petition, while the center-right CDU/CSU declined.
Together with the Munich Environmental Institute, AlgorithmWatch says more than 20,000 people have now emailed SPD and CDU/CSU lawmakers on the parliament’s energy committee. “The CDU/CSU in particular wants to weaken sustainability rules for data centers – even more than the government’s already poor draft law provides for,” said Julian Bothe, senior policy manager at AlgorithmWatch.