Online Operations for Protests and Pranks: How to Get the Truth Out

Saturday, July 23, 2022: 6:00 pm (DAC 416ABC): As the Internet centralizes, it gets harder to keep sites up that disrupt corporate power. In 2020, several members of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion took their street-based disruptions onli...

Saturday, July 23, 2022: 6:00 pm (DAC 416ABC): As the Internet centralizes, it gets harder to keep sites up that disrupt corporate power. In 2020, several members of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion took their street-based disruptions online, to get the attention of big companies that were contributing to climate collapse. They adopted the tactics of prankster/activists The Yes Men. They began with a viral pseudo-announcement from Google regarding their funding of climate-denying lobbyists. The activists recently went after a refinery project in Wisconsin, resulting in dozens of articles and TV news stories. These activities and other similar online protests invite takedowns galore from target corporations. This presentation will explore learnings for keeping a site up and maximizing impact in the face of legal complaints and takedown requests targeting domain registrars, Internet service providers, email service providers, and social media networks.

Jim Haugen
Sam Peinado