What is Electronic Civil Disobedience?
Right to Online Demonstration
Right to Online Demonstration: the temporary suspension of a site's service or the spread of its databases hasn't to be considered a violent action and it don't produce an irreparable damage. For this reason, ddos, deface and any other technique that means a demonstration of dissent online has to be considered lawful. Computer tools of dissent are like a virtual flashmob. We can consider the Online Demonstration like the boardings that environmentalist ships do against fishing boats, these can bring some temporary discomfort, but haven't to be considered illegal.
What is an Online Demonstration
On our website we refer to ECD as Online Protest, Online Demonstration, Virtual Sit-In and Netstrike. These are just different names for the same thing! An online demonstration or virtual sit-in is a form of political action in the internet age. By repeatedly calling up a certain homepage from numerous computers and within a specified period of time, the intention is to block the server via which the homepage in question can be reached. In the event of technical success, the corresponding website cannot be reached or can only be called up very slowly. In order to achieve technical success, a large number of participants is necessary. That is why online demonstrations are publicly called for and mobilized. This distinguishes online demonstrations from "Distributed Denial of Service Attacks", which work according to the same principle, but use someone else's computer without permission and can therefore also be carried out by a single person.
Interview with DIE KELLERASSELN
You have set up the website, which not only documents information about online activism, but also offers downloadable technical aids, such as the virtual sit-in script that has been used in earlier online demonstrations launched by the Netzdemo Portal. What are these programs and how can they be used?
Our website provides software for online campaigns and is intended to support other campaign groups that may not have the opportunity to develop and test something like this. In addition, we are trying to create an extensive collection of texts on the subject of online activism over time and also try to bring reports about current campaigns. Programs such as the Virtual Sit-In Script are written in such a way that they can be placed on a website without a great deal of prior technical knowledge. By clicking on the corresponding link, the script is called and now starts a large number of calls to the target website. The action group does not need to have its own web server to carry out an online action. The programs are very handy and can also be used for other campaigns with minor changes. The idea behind this is, of course, to enable many left-wing groups to do a protest action on the internet. We would like to thank everyone who has participated in our Virtual Sit-Ins. Online protest is just beginning to evolve.free online protest!