99-5090 MOREPRESS RELEASE
PRESS/151
23 November 1999
WTO DG MOORE DEPLORES FAKE WTO WEBSITES:
THEY “UNDERMINE WTO TRANSPARENCY”
WTO Director-General Mike Moore has severely criticized recently-created websites which mimic
the WTO’s websites and create confusion among the public. He says the WTO welcomes criticism
and change, but is concerned that the confusion created by the fake sites with their misleading Internet
links is a disservice to the public. This could disrupt a much-needed debate by making WTO
information more difficult to obtain.
This is the text of his statement:“I am deeply concerned about the recent appearance of anonymous websites which copy important
design features of the WTO’s official websites. This causes confusion among visitors looking for
genuine information from the WTO, disrupting a much-needed democratic dialogue. It’s illegal and
it’s unfair to those who have a genuine case in criticizing the WTO, an organization that onlyfunctions with the authority of sovereign governments.
“By creating confusion, the fake websites are interfering with the public’s ability to obtain
information from the WTO. They have copied the WTO website’s design, and they use domain names
such as ‘ www.gatt.org ’ and page titles such as ‘World Trade Organization / GATT Home Page’
which make it difficult for visitors to realize that these are fake pages. Whereas the WTO uses the
image of the official logo of the WTO Ministerial Conference as a hyperlink to the official conference
website, these fake sites use it to link to anti-WTO material — further misleading web users.
 “The WTO and its members uphold the rights of others to criticize and comment on WTO affairs,
including the right to protest publicly. The WTO is, after all, a forum for governments to debate and
negotiate trade issues, reflecting the various concerns and interests of their citizens.
“Confusing the public is another matter. Contrary  to critics’ allegations, the WTO is highly
transparent. The WTO website already contains over 60,000 official documents in the three officiallanguages (English, French and Spanish), including minutes of meetings, and some 200,000 visitors
per month download the equivalent of millions of pages of documents in addition to browsing regular
web pages. The vast majority of these documents are released to the public immediately and the rest
are derestricted within about six months. The WTO Secretariat receives and replies to thousands of
enquiries each week by telephone and email, a large number coming through the WTO website, either
directly by email or via the contact telephone numbers on the website.PRESS/151
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“Those who wish to see the WTO become more transparent should join me in deploring any action
which makes it more difficult for the public to gain access to WTO information. 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.”
END