A virtual sit-in is a form of electronic civil disobedience deriving its name from the sit-ins popular during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The virtual sit-in attempts to recreate that same action digitally using a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDOS). During a virtual sit-in, hundreds of activists attempt to access a target website simultaneously and repetitively. If performed correctly, this will cause the target website to run slowly or even collapse entirely, preventing anyone from accessing it.[1][2]
On December 21, 1995, the first world Virtual sit-in, conceived by Tommaso Tozzi, was created by the Florentine group Strano Network against the French government to protest against the nuclear tests in Mururoa and was defined as a "Netstrike".[3] On Thursday May 1, 1998, Ricardo Dominguez (co-founder of Electronic Disturbance Theater) and Stefan Wray held a virtual sit-in in which they decided to attack the World Economic Forum (WEF). They did this to support their particular beliefs against anti-globalization.[4] With over 160,000 people who attended the virtual sit-in for reasons that they could not take to the streets of New York City protest. More than 40,000 also downloaded software which made a DDOS attack easier was also recorded.[5] The attack lasted all of Thursday and Friday night.