Swiss protesters target Big Tech with giant banner near data centre
Greenpeace activists unfurled a 676-square-metre banner outside a data centre site in Switzerland, displaying images of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos alongside the slogan: “Big Tech Bros suck our water, electricity, data.” Drone footage captured campaigners spreading the banner across a field next to a facility being developed by US company STACK Infrastructure. Greenpeace is demanding a nationwide moratorium on new mega data centres until binding rules protect energy supplies, water resources and the public interest. The group says two planned facilities in Beringen could together use about one and a half times the annual electricity consumption of the entire canton of Schaffhausen. They would also need substantial water for cooling, and Greenpeace questions how waste heat will be reused and who benefits. The protest is part of an international push against unchecked data centre growth, with similar actions across Europe. Greenpeace urges authorities to put environmental protection and public needs ahead of tech companies’ commercial interests.
