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Cyber pranksters focus on Bhopal tragedy

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD Dec. 10. They are self-proclaimed impostors all right. But their cyber spoof has only refocused world's attention on arguably one of the world's largest industrial disasters — the Bhopal tragedy.

A hoax website put up by "Yes Men", an activists group, in the name of Dow-Chemical, which took over the Union Carbide, but refused to honour the liabilities of the merged company in respect of the Bhopal victims, has attracted the attention of netizens worldwide.

The "Yes Men", who claim themselves to be a "genderless, loose-knit association of 300 impostors worldwide", have undoubtedly stirred a hornet's nest with their latest web hoax. Their spoof site http://www.dow-chemical.com/ led to an expected reaction from Dow.

It complained to the hosting company about copyright and trademark violations and managed to block access to the site, which offered an explanation purportedly from the Dow president and CEO, Michael D. Parker, disowning the company's responsibility for Bhopal victims. But the "Yes Men" immediately resurrected the website with a different URL http://www.dow-chemical.va.com.au/ and offered a free download of the site, so that it could be hosted on any URL.

The hoax site is similar to the company website (http://www.dow.com/) save for an image on the homepage. Though the content is entirely replaced by satirical documents, the design and links look the same. One of the links throws up a purported speech of Mr. Parker, and is titled as "Growth in tough times: Lessons from Dow's journey''.

The supposedly draft key note addressed to the American Association of Chemical Advertisers 2003 annual meeting, points out, "We (at the Dow) have blazed a trail fostering government cooperation, wearing down our opponents, evading draconian legislation and using artful communications.''

It further adds: "Against all odds, the Dow has kept its hands clean of the worst industrial disaster ever, despite our acquisition of the Union Carbide. We continue to produce persistent organic pollutants even after a United Nations treaty had been agreed to eliminate many of these''.

In another link, the spoof site maintains (through a purported Dow press release) that though legal investigations have consistently pinpointed the Union Carbide as the culprit (for the gas leak), "both the Union Carbide and Dow had to publicly deny these findings... .

But the Dow does not and cannot acknowledge responsibility. If we did, not only would we be required to expend many billions of dollars on clean-up and compensation — much worse, the public could then point to the Dow as a precedent in other big cases... . We are unable to set this precedent for ourselves and the industry, much as we would like to see the issue resolved in a humane and satisfying way''.

Incidentally, the Dow had recently settled asbestos lawsuits filed against the Union Carbide in the U.S., owning liabilities of the merged company. But it had not done much in respect of the Bhopal gas victims and is silent on its responsibility to help the victims or in addressing the subsequent contamination problems arising out of the spill of the lethal gas from the Union Carbide's pesticide factory 18 years ago.

And this is not the first time the cyber pranksters gained attention through hoax sites.

Two years ago, they hosted http://www.gatt.org,/ a fake World Trade Organisation site.

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