Following political resistance, Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. has announced that it would be postponing its plans to build a massive data center in the Netherlands, due to political opposition.
The decision comes one week after the Dutch Senate passed a circular requesting Prime Minister Mark Rutte's administration to use its powers to stop the construction of the site near Zeewolde, which is around 50 kilometers east of Amsterdam.
A company’s spokesperson was reportedly quoted saying that the firm has chosen to stop the development efforts in Zeewolde due to the current conditions.
The town had already approved plans to establish the largest data center in the Netherlands in December, from which social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp would be able to serve customers throughout Europe.
For those unaware, the data center was supposed to use 1.38 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity and span across 166 hectares of farmland, all while running on renewable energy and providing 400 permanent jobs.
However, some environmentalists were opposed to it because they did not want a multinational firm to use the limited amount of sustainable power supply in the Netherlands. Some Zeewolde locals also claimed that their voices were not heard during the permitting procedure.
The Senate motion requested the government to postpone the construction until an acceptable data center policy was curated by the government.
Meta Platforms intended a strong collaboration that would bring jobs as well as community benefits to the region after being invited by the regional, municipal, and national governments to consider a data center investment in the Netherlands and Zeewolde in particular, in 2019.
The company said it would continue to work with the town to figure out what to do next, leaving the possibility of resuming the construction of the project open.
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