A group of digital protesters is reportedly plotting to “take down” the White House website on Inauguration Day to protest to swearing in of President-elect Donald Trump.
Last week, the global news distribution service PR Newswire sent out notification of a campaign by Protester.io, a platform for digital protest organizers, to “occupy” and “take down” WhiteHouse.gov in an effort to “defend and revive our democracy.” The campaign is targeted at individuals who want to protest Trump but are unable to travel to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration ceremony.
“On January 20th, hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to Washington, DC to march in protest of the inauguration of Donald Trump. Millions more around the country will be joining the cause from home. If you can’t make it to Washington DC on Inauguration Day, you can still participate by occupying whitehouse.gov online,” the statement read.
According to the protest group’s website, the campaign is called “Occupy WhiteHouse.gov,” a name that recalls the wave of largely meaningless “Occupy Wall Street” drum circles that starting forming in New York and elsewhere in 2011.
The group is urging protesters to “occupy” the White House website by visiting the page and clicking refresh as often as possible in hopes of overwhelming the server and crashing the site. “When enough people occupy www.WhiteHouse.gov the site will go down. Please join us and stand up against this demagogue who is threatening our democracy and our security,” the protest page explains.
PR Newswire originally circulated the release under the headline, “Protester.io Launches Campaign to Take Down WhiteHouse.gov on Inauguration Day,” but eventually removed the release and sent out a modified version under the a different headline: “Protester.io Launches Campaign to Voice Your Opinion at WhiteHouse.gov on Inauguration Day.”
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