Tuesday, November 30, 1999

By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The World Trade Organization is opening some of its Seattle proceedings to Internet visitors and hosting a cyberspace chat room, while criticizing as deceptive and illegal an anti-WTO Web site that closely mimics its own.

"It's ironic that while the WTO is accused of lacking transparency, some critics who put out misleading or false information are camouflaging their identities," Mike Moore, the WTO's director general, wrote in a press release.

For more coverage, see our WTO index. Also see our WTO photo galleries.

The phony site, www.gatt.org, replicates the WTO's own site, www.wto.org, down to the logo, typeface, colors and layout. It even carries a 1999 WTO copyright notice at the bottom of the page.

But on the fake site's "Director-General's Home Page" -- complete with a picture of Moore -- the message reads, "The WTO's purpose is to broaden and enforce global free trade. Global free trade already gives multinational corporations vast powers to enforce their will against democratic governments."

Similar language appears throughout the phony site, which also contains about two dozen links to sites maintained by organizations opposing the WTO. A site called rtmark.com claims credit for the "gatt" site.

Though the phony site is confusingly similar in appearance to the real thing, people seeking WTO information through search engines won't be misled.

The fake doesn't come up when "WTO" is entered in most major engines, while the WTO's site does. It doesn't even come up when "GATT" (short for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a predecessor to the WTO) is entered. The only arguably misleading reference appears to be the link back to the phony site from rtmark's site, which says, "Looking for the WTO site? Visit www.gatt.org."

The WTO itself is using the Internet to make some of its proceedings more public than they've been.

Yesterday, a symposium of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was Webcast from the WTO's site.

Today through Friday, the WTO's plenary sessions will be Webcast live in English, French and Spanish. Webcasts are scheduled all day today and Friday, and all day and evening tomorrow and Thursday.

Another link on the WTO's page leads to a chat room, where visitors from around the world can discuss eight issues, including agriculture, development, dispute resolution and the environment. But few people appear to taking advantage of the forum. By yesterday afternoon, no discussion had more than four postings.

The WTO is also using its site to counter what it describes as "a number of Web sites contain(ing) accusations against the WTO which are based on incorrect information or downright falsehoods."