Following the example of their Spanish brethren (CI No 3,489), an association of Italian internet users staged a strike this week in protest at the tariffs charged by national carrier Telecom Italia SpA. The group of 5,000 users, which published its manifesto on its own web site and goes by the name ‘No- Tut’ (referring to the offending tariff), simply refrained from surfing. In addition, some 100 sites took part in the protest by replacing their home page with a black screen, with the words ‘This site is taking part in the strike against the Tut, which has been increased 22% and will thus kill off the internet in Italy!’ Furthermore, No-Tut is celebrating the fact that some 4,000 people visited its site (notut.ml.org) on Tuesday, when the strike took place, three times its normal hit rate, indicating that the protest gained much-needed publicity. The organizers of the strike threaten to go on the offensive, however, if their protest falls on deaf ears. They are planning a direct ‘Net attack’ on the carrier’s own web site on October 28, unless the company starts to listen to their demands. This will take the form of a mass logging on to www.telecomitalia.it, effectively clogging up the company’s web servers and, they hope, forcing it to take notice. Telecom’s reaction, to date, has been a statement to the effect that Italy’s local rates are among the cheapest in Europe. Anyone interested in following the dispute can log onto the No-Tut site (provided they can read Italian), or try Telecom Italia’s on the 28th.
