In The Coming Swarm, rising star Molly Sauter examines the
history, development, theory, and practice of distributed denial of
service actions as a tactic of political activism. The internet is a
vital arena of communication, self expression, and interpersonal
organizing. When there is a message to convey, words to get out, or
people to unify, many will turn to the internet as a theater for that
activity. As familiar and widely accepted activist tools-petitions,
fundraisers, mass letter-writing, call-in campaigns and others-find
equivalent practices in the online space, is there also room for the
tactics of disruption and civil disobedience that are equally
familiar from the realm of street marches, occupations, and sit-ins?
With a historically grounded analysis, and a focus on early
deployments of activist DDOS as well as modern instances to trace its
development over time, The Coming Swarm uses activist DDOS
actions as the foundation of a larger analysis of the practice of
disruptive civil disobedience on the internet.
