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Feature:

Mad Dow disease is catching

An internet site that sends up Dow Chemical’s smarmy public relations “spin” is causing a sensation in cyberspace.

The spoof site appeared at www.dow-chemical.com for about 72 hours before Dow shut it down.

The spoof site mimics Dow's real site closely, in terms of design and content, but contains an uncharacteristically honest approach to issues like sustainable development and the company’s responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.

The Yes Men, an organisation of anti-corporate pranksters, have claimed responsibility for the spoof site.

Word spread when the Yes Men distributed a press release to about 400 individuals – mainly journalists and members of its artists collective.

The Yes Men say the site received more than a quarter of a million visits in those 72 hours – including more than 8000 from Dow employees (measured by checking the user’s domain – in this case, Dow.com).

According to The Yes Men, Dow was "hopping mad" about the spoof. The company issued a demand to the site's Internet Service Provider, Verio, to remove the content immediately as it was in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Verio not only shut down Dow-Chemical.com; they shut down "thing.net" – a hosting service for dozens of artists and activists who had no relationship to the Dow spoof.

But the site survives. Within hours of the site shutdown, the content returned at a new address, http://dow-chemical.va.com.au/along with a new link: "Download this entire site."

Yes Men spokesperson Andy Bichlbaum told The New York Times that "if Dow gets this one too, it will continue to exist," as activists have been encouraged to mirror the site content at additional web addresses. The site currently appears at several addresses, including http://www.dowethics.com/, http://www.bhopal.doesntexist.com/and, courtesy of Greenpeace, http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/

Join Greenpeace’s
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on Dow’s refusal to take responsibility for Bhopal.




http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/

Last edited:Thursday, 19 December, 2002

 

 
 
 
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