Policing the Porous: Electronic Civil Disobedience

Describes the heightened surveillance of all "porous" systems, including the Internet, in the interest of national security by the US government in the wake of the September 11 (2001) terrorist attacks. It is argued that measures like the Anti-Terror Act & the FBI's new abilities to monitor electronic communications do not bode well for radical political organizations that use the Internet for their protest activities via acts of "electronic civil disobedience" (ECD). Several common practices used in ECD to block the flow of information to/from or otherwise disrupt the functioning of designated "oppressive" institutions are described, along with the potentially dire consequences -- identification as a subversive or terrorist & life in prison -- for ordinary agents of nonviolent political opposition who engage in ECD. 2 References. K. Hyatt Stewart