Finns march against data centres across the country

Demonstrations against data centres took place across Finland on Saturday afternoon, Yle reported. Organisers called for construction projects to be suspended temporarily.

According to a statement from Luontoliitto, protesters are concerned that data centre projects are being announced in Finland at a rapid pace while regulation of the industry has not kept up.

The Helsinki demonstration began at 1pm at Railway Square and was set to pass Google’s office on Arkadiankatu before heading to Parliament House. Yle reporter Otso Karhu estimated that about 200 people were there.

Demonstrations were also planned in at least Lahti, Tampere, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Turku. A few hundred people had gathered in Tampere by about 1pm, according to Yle.

Luontoliitto and several other organisations, including Elokapina, are organising the protests. They are part of the Europe-wide Stop Dirty Data Centers campaign. On Friday, police in Amsterdam arrested protesters who entered a Microsoft data centre construction site.