Politech archive on the gatt.org pranksters' earlier exploits: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=gatt -- Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 20:18:37 -0400 To: declanat_private From: Keith Dawson <dawsonat_private> Subject: A WTO hoax Cc: jonathanat_private Hi Declan -- This morning I received a press release apparently from the communications office of the WTO, with the headline: WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION WILL DISBAND, REFOUND UNDER NEW CHARTER. It's posted at [1]. The press release claimed: > As of September, agreements reached under the WTO will be > suspended pending ratification by the new organization, > tentatively referred to as the Trade Regulation Organization > ... Existing agreements ... each will be subject to individual > review for compliance with the TRO's charter, which is based > upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Disbanding for humanitarian reasons sounded quite unlike any WTO I had ever heard of. A little examination fingered the press release as a hoax. Further investigation revealed that it is an unusually well put-together hoax. In the past, the culture jamming groups The Yes Men and RTMark have acknowledged responsibility for WTO hacks originating at gatt.org [2] since just before the Seattle meeting of the WTO in November 1999. Don't know for sure who is responsible for the latest one. More details are at [3]. [1] http://tbtf.com/resource/WTO-hoax.txt [2] http://www.gatt.org/ [3] http://tbtf.com/blog/2002-05-19.html#1 _______________________________________________________ Keith Dawson dawsonat_private http://dawson.nu/ Layer of ash separates morning and evening milk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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