THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

attle with the WTO, this one mimicking the Dow Chemical Corporation. 40 The Yes Men
created DowEthics.com in 2002 primarily to raise awareness about the Bhopal disaster in India
and give information about what Dow was not willing to do about it. 41 The “Bhopal disaster”
refers to a massive leak of 27 tons of methyl isocyanate gas that occurred on December 4, 1984 at
the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, which killed, according to Union Carbide, about 3,800
victims within the first week. Survivor accounts, however, estimate around 8,000 deaths the first
week, with around 20,000 deaths to date and many thousands more afflicted with various medical
conditions as a result of the leak and subsequent pollution. The site has never been cleaned up.
Union Carbide settled with the Indian government to give the victims the equivalent of US $470
each (about five years’ worth of medical expenses), though many require life-long medical
assistance as a result of complications induced by the disaster and the pollution left unattended in
its wake. Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001. 42
In December 2002, to coincide with the eighteenth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the
Yes Men posted DowEthics.com through the server Thing.net and circulated a press release
reaffirming Dow’s reluctance to take responsibility for Bhopal. Once Dow learned of the parody
website and press release, it immediately filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
notice to Verio, Thing.net’s network (upstream) provider. Verio, in turn, shut down the entire
40 http://www.dowethics.com.
41 See http://www.bhopal.com for Union Carbide’s (and Dow’s) stance on the tragedy and http://www.bhopal.net for
an in-depth look from the perspective of the victims.
42 The Bhopal Medical Appeal &Sambhavna Trust, “What Happened In Bhopal?” The Bhopal Medical Appeal
&Sambhavna Trust, http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html, accessed April 5, 2005.
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