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Attacking Democracy: Should DDoS Be Considered a Legitimate Form of Protest?
- HannibalLecter 9y agoFlooding neutral websites with comments and discussion about how something is wrong or unfair seems to work well with corporations because it hits their bottom line and often hits it really hard. However with government there doesn't seem to be any effect anymore in the USA at least. In fact negative press, if it's negative enough, can have the opposite effect and rally supporters of the very candidate or party that is being protested... that's how good the political spin machine is. And that's because the money is there. DDoS though seems to follow the picketing format at least; close the front doors of the establishment being picketed and disrupt their effectiveness enough so they have no choice but to listen. So from a philosophical position, the DDoS fits the constrains of a modern protest. However, it may be something in the future that web browsers could tackle. A web browser where the general public could chat about each website that users are visiting... could enable picketing and protest to happen without everyone wondering if the internet is down or if they have some technical problems on their system. You see with an IRL protest, you see the pickets. You see the protesters... so you know what's up.