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Fake websites are nothing new for those who spend time surfing the web. The expression "fake website" covers several cases, ranging from exact copies of certain sites (which look graphically the same but have different contents) to the use of a URL which can be confused with the original one. Without entering into the difficult question of the legality of creating fake websites, it is possible to say that this practice can be very effective in terms of creating confusion and uncertainty among Internet users.

In the case of the Seattle protest, a fake website (or rather a "shadow site") was created on the basis of the official WTO website (Fig. 2). It is important to note that even the URL, http://www.gatt.org, was carefully chosen with obvious reference to the previous name of the WTO (the official website address is http://www.wto.org).

Fig. 2 - Fake WTO Website (http://www.gatt.org)

The contents of the fake website were completely different from those of the original site. For example, the home page announced that the Opening Ceremony of the Third WTO Ministerial Conference had been "suddenly cancelled". Lower on the page was an alert message about a "fake WTO website misleading public", with a hyperlink to the original WTO website (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 - Original WTO Website (http://www.wto.org)

The WTO did not appreciate this kind of misleading information, to the point that it released an official press communiqué. The text and the tone of the press release is self explanatory and gives an idea of the WTO reaction:

The Seattle WTO host committee created an official site (www.wtoseattle.org) which offered live Webcasts of conference sessions and related trade symposiums held as part of the international gathering (Fig. 4). The home page, after the meeting, featured the following message:

Fig. 4 - Official Website of the Seattle WTO Host Committee (http://www.wtoseattle.org)

However, another site, located at http://www.seattlewto.org (Fig. 5), operated by opponents of the organisation, featured information on protests and on the effect of trade globalisation on the environment. The following message appeared on this homepage after the protests:

Fig. 5 Website Created by Protesters (http://www.seattlewto.org)

Discussion Boards

Discussion boards are an interesting medium offered by the Internet to foster the exchange of ideas. They consist of web pages where anyone can post a message which anyone else can read and respond to. Thus, anyone accessing the website can follow the developments of the discussion of every thread/issue addressed in the discussion board. An example of the several discussion boards created on the web for the Seattle meeting can be found at the address:

http://www.freespeech.org/scripts/wwwboard/activism/wwwboard.html.

A more interactive way of exchanging idea and opinions online is chat (IRC - Internet Relay Chat), which was also used by the protesters in Seattle. Many chat rooms were opened before and during the Seattle meeting. An example is available at the address

http://216.173.206.96/irc.php3, or for those using an IRC client, at the IRC server irc.re-lab.net channel: #wto.

Fig. 6 Website of Activism Discussion Board (http://www.freespeech.org/scripts/wwwboard/activism/wwwboard.html)

The Virtual Sit-in

In order to slow down access to the WTO website, a virtual sit-in was organized from 30 November to 3 December with the purpose of generating a vast amount of traffic on the site. This meant that people interested in accessing the site encountered difficulties (i.e. very slow connection response) and were therefore discouraged from accessing information on the site.

A virtual sit-in consists of continuous access to one specific website by many different users at the same time. This causes several technical problems for the server (and the line), which cannot manage too many concurrent accesses. Thus, users wishing to access the website cannot display the information (or have to wait a long time).

Unlike a traditional civil disobedience action, anyone can participate in virtual blockades and sit-ins from home, work, university, or from other points of access to the Internet. Furthermore, they can act against an opponent hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

Building on the relatively unsophisticated method of repeated simultaneous multiple keystrokes, software has emerged that automates this action. These small programs are called ping engines. They are basically small looped programs that impart the same instructions repeatedly. Ping engines simulate the acts of repeated simultaneous multiple keystrokes. Pinging some sites may have relatively little impact, especially sites with little traffic. But pinging, and hence blocking, highly trafficked sites that contain "useful" information may cause a greater disturbance. One of the most effective of such engines is the so-called "Flood Net" which is a device consisting of a URL based software used to flood and block an opponent's website. The device will ping the attacked website every three seconds (which means that it will access the website every three seconds). Therefore enough people connected to Flood Net at the same time will block access to the site.

It is not illegal to send letters expressing dissent to governmental or corporate e-mail addresses. But questions of legality emerge with the application of more sophisticated techniques that automate multiple dispersion of electronic signals that cause an electronic disturbance. The higher one is on the tactical scale the more crucial it is to mask identities and to not leave traces of actions.

It is interesting to note that the claimed objective of the "electrohippies" (http://www.greennet.org.uk/ehippies/) is to use information and communications technology to effect social change, therefore applying the tactics of street campaigning to cyberspace. Through their site they intend to show various resources for expanding the skills and knowledge of activism, civil disobedience, and how traditional campaign tools can be developed on the Internet.

The results of the virtual sit-in for Seattle were more successful than expected, at least according to what the organisers (electrohippies) published on the Internet (http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/action/index2.htm):

E-mail has always been the easiest and the most used tool of the Internet. As the Seattle meeting shows, it can be very effective both in the preparation and the follow-up to demonstrations. After their demonstration through the virtual sit-in, some of the electronic activists went further, with the aim of showing that the WTO's public information system was not immune to public pressure. They decided on a follow-up based on e-mail. They recommended that people send e-mail to WTO expressing their own reasons for their objection to the organisation and to the Seattle conference. In order to make the protest more effective, they suggested sending not only a typed message, but also to attach a large file to the message in order to flood the WTO e-mail servers.

Very detailed instructions were provided for less experienced people. First, a list of e-mail addresses of more than 40 WTO officers and offices was provided, as well as tips to ensure that the attachments were suitably large and incompressible files. For those having difficulties in finding such files, they provided the following list of relevant reports that people could send the WTO ranging from 149 kilobytes to 2,125 kilobytes:

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