The virtual sit-in is executed through a program called "The Zapatista
Tactical FloodNet," a program that is embedded in EDT's web pages and
which allows supporters to send automated page requests to targeted
websites. Each participant joins by clicking and accessing the host
webpage (typically EDT) with multiple windows that show the sites
engaged by the e-action, for example the website of the Mexican
administration, and transnational institutions such as banks and
corporations.

The idea is that by accessing the webpage from which the action is
executed, participants activate a series of loops that work as page
requests on the targeted websites, without people having to actually
press "enter" to load the pages. The protestors' automated page
requests, simultaneously enacted from multiple computers around the
world, provoke such an excess of demand that the targeted site's server
is unable to handle it.

The action works as a sort of digital jam, slowing down or disrupting
the targeted site's capacity to retrieve information. Through this
performance, the congregation of activists in virtual space, a phenomenon
that they call "swarming," results in a massive intervention in time,
delaying or disrupting the targeted site's normal functioning. The
success of the virtual sit-in lays in bringing about the on site
presence of international participants, a coming together that has the
potential to be as effective as blockade tactics in street activism.

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