Meta's plans to build Dutch data centre hit political glitch

FILE PHOTO: Woman holds smartphone with Meta logo in front of a displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration picture taken October 28, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch Senate on Tuesday passed a motion calling on the government to "use its powers" to temporarily block the construction of Facebook owner Meta's planned giant data centre in the Netherlands.

In December the town of Zeewolde, 50 km east of Amsterdam, approved plans to build the largest facility of its kind in the Netherlands, from which Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp would serve users across Europe.