Over the fence

The march was stopped before it arrived. Dutch news agency ANP reported that police blocked the demonstration on Friday morning as it approached the construction site in Amsterdam's western port area, and that the mayor then banned the gathering. Part of the crowd pushed on anyway. Bloomberg, citing a police statement, reported that two groups entered the site by cutting open a gate. Some protesters climbed a construction crane and set off flares. Others sprayed graffiti. By late afternoon, riot police were escorting people off the site, and some protesters still remained, local media reported.

The site is AMS01, a data center campus being built by the British developer Pure Data Centres in Westpoort. Microsoft is reported to be the campus's sole tenant, although Pure DC's own project page confirms only that the campus is fully leased. The page does not name the tenant. It says the private substation is already built and live, and that the company is investing over €1 billion.

Microsoft's statement, given to Gizmodo, was short: it respects the right to express views peacefully, and it does not condone actions that are unlawful or put people's safety at risk. Pure DC, according to comments gathered by Reuters, urged the people on site to leave safely and offered to talk.

Three crowds, three arrest counts

Start with how many people were inside the fence, because the reports give three different answers. A Reuters witness counted about 100 people breaching the site's boundaries. A spokesperson for Geef Tegengas, the group that organized the occupation, told local broadcaster AT5 that about 500 demonstrators entered the grounds, with hundreds more remaining outside. A campaigner with Fossil Free Netherlands, which held a separate demonstration outside the site, told Bloomberg that an estimated 400 protesters participated in the demonstration as a whole.

Those numbers are not measuring the same thing. Entered the site, entered plus stayed outside, and took part in the day's demonstration are three different quantities, and each source had a different vantage point, and in two cases an interest in the size of the crowd. Reports that pick one figure and drop the others are choosing a side without saying so.

Arrests are no cleaner. Bloomberg's police-sourced report during the action put the figure at at least one arrest, with an angle grinder and climbing equipment confiscated. AP subsequently reported several arrests as riot police cleared the site. The reports available on Friday did not establish a final police count.

The power claim, and a forged letter

Geef Tegengas is demanding a permanent halt to the project. Its stated grounds are power and housing: the group says the finished campus will consume as much electricity as every household in Amsterdam combined, and that its draw will derail 30,000 planned homes.

Compare that with the one hard figure in the story. Pure DC states a capacity of 78 MW. Capacity is a ceiling, not a consumption figure. A campus running at its full 78 MW around the clock for a year would draw about 683 GWh; a real campus runs below its ceiling, and no report from Friday carried a grid operator's estimate of expected use. The household equivalence is the group's claim. It may be directionally right or wrong, but on the published evidence it is an advocacy number, not a measured one.

Separately, the City of Amsterdam warned residents on Friday about a forged letter bearing its logo. The document claimed that 30,000 homes could not be built because of a data center and warned of expected power cuts. The city said the letter did not originate from the municipality and that its claims were false. The protest group's housing argument uses the same 30,000 figure, but there is no evidence establishing a connection between the two. Readers should not treat the forged letter as evidence of where the campaign's claim originated.

For balance, the measurable local stakes cut both ways. Pure DC says the build provides over 1,000 construction jobs and about 80 permanent jobs once complete. Amsterdam's grid operator Liander has separately estimated that the city's stricter data center policy makes three planned substations unnecessary, saving about €125 million. That estimate concerns the city's policy as a whole, not this campus, and should not be assigned to either side of this site's argument.

A project that predates the ban, inside a wider weekend

Amsterdam is not a city that forgot to regulate this. It restricts new data centers until 2030. This project survived because its plans date to 2016, before the restrictions, and the permitting continued tower by tower: a permit for the first tower was published in July 2025 by the North Sea Canal Area Environment Agency on behalf of the province of North Holland. Friday's occupation was also not the site's first action this year. In July, Extinction Rebellion members threw balloons filled with paint and an acidic mixture over the same perimeter fence.

The Amsterdam action opened a coordinated weekend. The Stop Dirty Data Centres coalition's events run on November 6 and 7 across 15 European countries, organizers said, with a shared demand: a moratorium on large data centers until the public has decided what they are for. In Berlin on Friday, about a dozen protesters gathered outside a data center with the same demand.

The two movements want the same pause by opposite methods. In the United States this week it arrived through ballot boxes, in measures a developer can read, price and appeal. In Amsterdam, it arrived through a cut fence, producing photographs, arrests and safety statements, but changing no permit by itself. The permits are where this project will actually be decided, and Friday's reporting contains no change to any of them.

Update — November 6, 2026: Police figures reported later on Friday put the arrests higher than the wire reports filed during the action. ANP, citing the police, reported that police arrested an estimated 150 to 200 demonstrators on suspicion of trespassing. German agency dpa carried the same police announcement. The figure is a police estimate of arrests, not a final count.

Sources

  1. [1] Reuters reporting carried by European outlets, November 6, 2026 (a Reuters witness counted about 100 people breaching the site; a Geef Tegengas spokesperson told AT5 about 500 demonstrators entered, with hundreds more outside; Dutch news agency ANP reported police blocked the demonstration march in the morning and the mayor then banned the gathering; the group's claims that the finished campus will use as much electricity as every Amsterdam household combined and will derail 30,000 planned homes; the July 2026 action at the same fence, when Extinction Rebellion members threw balloons filled with paint and an acidic mixture over it)Read source
  2. [2] Associated Press, November 6, 2026 (protesters climbing a construction crane and setting off flares; by late afternoon police were escorting activists off the site while some remained; Microsoft's statement; the Stop Dirty Data Centres events on November 6–7 in 15 European countries, organizers said; about a dozen protesters outside a data center in Berlin)Read source
  3. [3] Gizmodo, November 6, 2026, reporting Bloomberg's police-sourced account (two groups entered the site by cutting open a gate; at least one person was arrested and police confiscated items including an angle grinder and climbing equipment; a Fossil Free Netherlands campaigner told Bloomberg an estimated 400 protesters participated in the demonstration; the facility is being developed by Pure Data Centres Group with a planned capacity of 78 MW and Microsoft as its sole tenant) and Microsoft's emailed statement to GizmodoRead source
  4. [4] Pure Data Centres, Amsterdam (Westpoort) project page (a 78 MW, fully leased, six-acre site; three 85-meter towers housing 26 MW of data halls each; a private substation with a firm connection into the 50 kV grid, already constructed and live; a target PUE of 1.2; over €1 billion of investment; over 1,000 construction jobs and approximately 80 permanent jobs; the page does not name the tenant)Read source
  5. [5] City of Amsterdam, "Valse brief over datacenter gaat rond in Sloterdijk", November 6, 2026 (the municipality's own warning about a forged residents' letter circulating in Sloterdijk: the letter claims 30,000 fewer homes can be built because of the data center and that residents should expect power cuts; the city says that information is incorrect and the letter did not come from the municipality; Alderman Alexander Scholtes condemns the spread of false information under the city's logo)Read source
  6. [6] Liander, "Elektriciteitsnet hoeft minder verzwaard door strikt datacenterbeleid", 2025 (the grid operator's recalculation for Amsterdam's data center policy as a whole: three fewer electricity substations are needed than previously planned thanks to the data center policy, saving Liander approximately €125 million; the calculation concerns city policy, not the Plimsollweg campus)Read source
  7. [7] AI World Today, November 6, 2026 (Pure Data Centres urged those present to leave the site safely and offered to talk, according to comments gathered by Reuters; the North Sea Canal Area Environment Agency, acting on behalf of the province of North Holland, published a permit for the first tower in July 2025)Read source