The Electronic Disturbance Theater and Electronic Civil Disobedience (1998)

Authored by Stefan Wray | Published June 17, 1998

🎭 The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT)

The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a compact collective comprising artists and cyber-activists. Their primary mission is the conceptualization and implementation of Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD).

While their efforts have historically targeted the governments of the United States and Mexico—specifically to highlight the conflict involving the Zapatistas—the EDT believes that ECD methodologies can be adopted by various artistic and political movements globally.

Operating at the crossroads of:

1. Radical Politics
2. Performance and Recombinant Art
3. Software Engineering

The group developed a specific tool known as Flood Net, a piece of URL-based software designed to overwhelm and obstruct an adversary's website. The EDT does not wish to remain the sole leader of this movement; rather, they aim to eventually fade into the background, becoming one of many autonomous cells that expand the toolkit of digital resistance.

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💻 Defining Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD)

ECD is rooted in the legacy of non-violent direct action. It adapts traditional physical tactics—specifically trespass and blockade—and translates them into the digital realm.

"Electronic Civil Disobedience, as a form of mass decentered electronic direct action, utilizes virtual blockades and virtual sit-ins."

Physical vs. Virtual Action

The ECD Workflow

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🚩 Digital Zapatismo

The Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, became a global phenomenon starting January 1, 1994. This was facilitated by the rapid distribution of communiqués from Subcommandante Marcos via the Internet.

Through the use of newsgroups, listservs, and Cc: lists, information regarding the struggle—including reports and calls for international rallies—spread across:

• The Americas
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Australia

The Zapatistas described these as "networks of resistance" and "networks of struggle." Initially, the web served primarily as a communication channel. However, following the Acteal Massacre, the perception shifted. The Internet was no longer just for talking; it became a communication tool site for direct action.

EDT's Objectives for Digital Zapatismo:

• Challenge the idea that the Net is only for communication.
• Establish the Internet as a legitimate space for political protest.
• Support the Zapatista cause through technical disruption.

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🌊 Flood Net: The Tool of Disruption

The concept for a virtual sit-in was first proposed by the Anonymous Digital Coalition (an Italian group). They suggested that users manually hit the "reload" button on five Mexican financial websites simultaneously to crash them.

The EDT took this theory of decentered collective action and automated it.

Technical Implementation

The tool was built as a Java applet. The logic can be simplified as follows:

// Conceptual logic of Flood Net
while (actionActive) {
    requestPage(targetURL);
    sleep(reloadInterval); 
}

Case Studies in Action

1. The Zedillo Action (April 10):

   • Target: Mexican President Zedillo’s website.
   • Frequency: $\text{Reload every } 7 \text{ seconds}$.
   • Participation: $\approx 8,000$ users.
   • Result: Intermittent blockage of the site.

2. The White House Action (May 10):

   • Target: President Clinton’s White House website.
   • Frequency: $\text{Reload every } 3 \text{ seconds}$.
   • Result: Likely ineffective. The White House server was significantly more robust than Zedillo's, and a lack of mirror site counters made participant numbers unclear.

Figure 1: Conceptual representation of distributed users targeting a single server.

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🛡️ Mexico Government Strikes Back

On June 10, the EDT targeted the Secretaria de Gobernacion. This action was a protest against the increasing deportation of international human rights observers. It served as a demonstration that individuals outside Mexico's physical borders could still exert pressure on Mexican government agencies.