Shell Blocks Employee Access to Activist Website

http://murderisbad.com

71,010 employees blocked from tweeting Oprah about Supreme Court murder case

Houston, TX (October 2, 2012) — Early Monday morning, 71,010 Shell employees received an email from the company's "Grassroots Employee Empowerment Division" providing information on Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a pivotal human rights case being argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. The email contained links to news stories, as well as a tool to help employees tweet their feelings about the case at key US news anchors (and Oprah Winfrey).

The only thing is, Shell has no "Grassroots Employee Empowerment Division," and they don't want publicity for the case. The email was in fact the work of an activist group called People Against Legalizing Murder (PALM), who received the list of Shell emails from what they believe to be a group of disaffected employees. (A similar leak occurred two years ago.)

Within minutes of the email being sent out, Shell internally blocked the site, preventing employees from accessing it.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 9:24 AM

This press release, which just appeared in my Inbox and is appended fully below, would indicate that the Yes Men and/or fellow activists have once again spoofed the corporate oligarchy, this time with a bogus Bank of America website http://yourbofa.com/ that foregrounds general public dissatisfaction with current banking practices and features a letter from the CEO in which he solicits public suggestions on how banking should be run: "We want to make sure the American people are well positioned to assert control and implement changes in the direction of banking, in the eventuality that such control becomes feasible.”

Herewith the entire text of the press release, received 24 minutes ago:

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Bank of America Corporation has added a news release to its Newsroom.

Bank of America Announces “Your Bank of America” Campaign, Partnership with Taxpayers to Revamp U.S. Banking

Date(s): 18-Apr-2012 9:00 AM

As future clouds, opportunities arise for public synergy

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 18, 2012-- Bank of America today announced the launch of an unprecedented campaign to reach out to the American public for guidelines on how banking should happen. The campaign, Your Bank of America (www.yourbofa.com), leverages the American public’s disaffection with today’s banking practices into a full suite of real banking solutions.

Feb. 27, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MASSIVE LEAK REVEALS CRIMINALITY, PARANOIA AMONG CORPORATE TITANS
Dow pays "strategic intelligence" firm to spy on Yes Men and grassroots activists. Takeaway: movement is on the right track!

WikiLeaks begins to publish today over five million e-mails obtained by Anonymous from "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails, which reveal everything from sinister spy tactics to an insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs (see below), also include several discussions of the Yes Men and Bhopal activists. (Bhopal activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India, that led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.)

Many of the Bhopal-related emails, addressed from Stratfor to Dow and Union Carbide public relations directors, reveal concern that, in the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the Bhopal issue might be expanded into an effective systemic critique of corporate rule, and speculate at length about why this hasn't yet happened—providing a fascinating window onto what at least some corporate types fear most from activists.

October 17, 2011. An email arrived today from the Yes Lab suggesting we should all reach out and become BFFs "with the 1% who wrecked the economy and left us with the bill." I pass it on for your consideration.

Dear Friend,

You’re on the Yes Men mailing list, which means you’ve probably seen some of our corporate crime-fighting mischief. Now it’s time to spring into action yourself — by becoming Best Friends Forever (BFFs) with the 1% who have wrecked the economy and left us with the bill.

Visit www.occupytheboardroom.org to find hundreds of available 1%ers today; then figure out how to reach them.

from the NY Observer:

Media activists The Yes Men are raising money on Kickstarter to publish a four-page broadsheet about the 99% represented at Liberty Plaza called The Occupy Wall Street Journal, Animal NY noticed.

A Japanese scientist has reportedly discovered a way to create edible steaks based on proteins from human excrement. Tokyo Sewage approached Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, to explore possible uses for their overabundance of sewage mud. Ikeda found that bacteria in the mud had produced a great deal of protein.

May 10, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tackling Childhood Asthma Not Coal Industry Priority After All
No more My Little Pony inhalers in stock

Contact: asthma@coalcares.org, (314) 472-5539

A charitable initiative by the world's largest coal company to provide free “novelty-themed” inhalers to asthmatic children may have seemed for a moment like a (somewhat misguided) breath of fresh air, coming as it did from an industry whose emissions are directly linked to childhood asthma, and which is fighting to gut clean air legislation that would save children’s lives.

May 10, 2011. An interesting press release entered my Inbox this morning. It appears to be another spoof by the Yes Men. This time they take down one of the giants of dirty coal, Peabody Energy, by pretending the polluter will be offering "custom-branded inhaler actuators to children living within 200 miles of a coal plant, along with coupons worth $10 towards the purchase of the asthma medication itself." The image above, plus access to various inhalers named for SpongeBob SquarePants and Justin Bieber, can be found at www.coalcares.org. Don't forget to visit the Kidz Koal Korner and complete this maze.

Here's the press release in its entirety:

Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) Announces "Coal Cares™" Initiative, New Nationwide Campaign Against Stigma of Childhood Asthma

ST. LOUIS, May 10, 2011 / PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Peabody Energy today announced the creation of an innovative new public health initiative designed to combat the stigma of asthma among American children ages 0-18. With Coal Cares™ (www.coalcares.org), Peabody will offer free, custom-branded inhaler actuators to children living within 200 miles of a coal plant, along with coupons worth $10 towards the purchase of the asthma medication itself.

"Too many young Americans face daily schoolyard taunting and bullying because of a condition over which they have no control," said Gregory H. Boyce, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Peabody Energy. "By re-branding the inhaler as a cool, individualized, must-have accessory, Coal Cares™ will empower children to tell bullies: ‘suck it up.’" Children can choose from a variety of youth-themed inhaler cases, from tween faves like "the Bieber" and "My Little Pony," to the "Emo" and "Diamond" inhalers for older, style-conscious youth. There’s even "My First Inhaler," for tots.

from Business Insider:

Apr. 13, 2011, 10:06 AM

Original post: The AP just fell for a hoax press release, which claimed that GE would repay the government the $3.2 billion tax loss carryforward it received. The hoax was designed to correspond with last month's controversy originated by the New York Times about how GE, despite its huge profits, was paying no taxes.

The fake press release titled "GE Responds to Public Outcry – Will Donate Entire $3.2 Billion Tax Refund to Help Offset Cuts and Save American Jobs" was posted at a site called http://www.genewscenters.com/.

It's a pretty sophisticated fake, since genewscenters.com is just one letter off from genewscenter.com, where GE actually hosts its news.

The AP then ran this:

Facing criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, General Electric announced it will repay its entire $3.2 billion tax refund to the US Treasury on April 18.

GE uses a series of foreign tax havens that the company says are legal and that led to an enormous refund for the 2010 tax year.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 15, 2011

ENBRIDGE HAIR HOAX EXPOSED
Group responsible offers free haircuts at Enbridge HQ at noon

Earlier today, the world learned of oil transport giant Enbridge’s strategy for handling inevitable oil spills along its proposed pipeline through pristine British Columbian wilderness: mop it up with human hair.

The cockamamie “MyHairCares” hoax, dreamed up by former oil workers and involving outreach to over 1000 hair salons, was promoted in a slick Video News Release and involved a flurry of conflicting press releases. The original story ran in a number of major news outlets (archive will be posted shortly here), but was pulled with no retraction or explanation after a terse denial by Enbridge that seemed to miss the point entirely. (For a longer, better denial click here.)