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Lib Dem cyber-propaganda targets Plaid Cymru

RIPitUp | 30.05.2001 10:18

Lib Dem Councillor cybersquats domain and places misleading information on 'official' lib dem site in poorly executed propaganda stunt...

On 12th May 2001 the domain plaid-cymru.co.uk was registered via Webfusion by one John Dixon.

If you look at the page at  http://www.plaid-cymru.co.uk you get the message:
"Due to high server demand, this page is temporarily unavailable."

The source code for that page is as follows:

Not the Plaid Cymru home page






Sorry, you don't appear to have frame support. Go here instead.





This means the page you see when you look at www.plaid-cymru.co.uk is actualy the page  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.dixon12/not_plaid, which is a page residing on the "official website of the Adamsdown ward of the Welsh Liberal Democrats" (accessible via  http://www.adamsdown.org.uk and co.uk but really at  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.dixon12/), jointly run by Lib Dem Councillors John Dixon and Nigel Howells.

Cybersquatting the domain plaid-cymru.co.uk is one thing, placing an obviously misleading statement (that's a lie to you and me) on what claims to be an official lib dem website is quite another!

(Nb back in January, the Labour Party posted negative and anonymous comments about Plaid Cymru on a range of newsgroups, except they omitted to disguise their IP addresses which led straight back to Millbank - doh!)

RIPitUp

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

What did they say?

31.05.2001 05:51

Is that true about the Labour Party posting stuff about Plaid Cymru? Can you give us a Google.com link for the actual messages?

Lemming
mail e-mail: lemming@grandtheftcyber.com


Scandal!

31.05.2001 06:23

I found some info on the Labour smear campaign against Plaid Cymru myself - see these URLs:

Coverage of the scandal in the IT media:
www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/16472.html
www.vnunet.com/News/1117417

David Currie's posting history:
 http://groups.google.com/groups?as_uauthors= davidcurrie58@hotmail.com&num=100

Adrian McMenamin's posting history:
 http://groups.google.com/groups?as_uauthors= adrian@mcmen.demon.co.uk&num=100

Hairy Melon Jones' (no kidding) posting history:
 http://groups.google.com/groups?as_uauthors= hairy_melon_jones@my-deja.com&num=100

Pay particular attention to this thread:
 http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&th=3482b2b074d9e749,43&ic=1


Not only is this a despicable attempt at a smear campaign, but Labour has also shown a complete disregard for netiquete, using tactics such as trolling and "me too" follow-ups.

Anyone know of any other cases like this?

Lemming
mail e-mail: lemming@grandtheftcyber.com


Reply from tricky Dixon

31.05.2001 10:47

I raised the issue of cyber-squatting as a dishonest and anti-democratic campaign by the LibDems to its chief architect, John 'Tricky' Dixon. Seems like the Electoral Commission is on his side - surprise, surprise. Here's his reply:

From: John Dixon Save Address - Block Sender
To: Daniel Brett Save Address
Subject: Re: FOUND OUT
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 23:08:29 +0100

Get over yourself. I've not been hiding, but well done on being the last person to get worried about the domains.

This was a story about three weeks ago. The Electoral Commission says nothing wrong has been done, and that they're not interested. The site makes clear who's responsible, and that it's not official in any way. I've said I'll allow the domains to be re-registered to the other parties when the election's over.

Big deal.

John


Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk


Related info:

01.06.2001 16:52


The story was indeed reported some time ago:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/wales/newsid_1329000/1329879.stm#top

but this was when there was content on the site instead of that fake server message.

the reply from j dixon above saying "The site makes clear who's responsible, and that it's not official in any way" is not true (may have been when the original content was there).

bbsee


Election Selection

01.06.2001 17:05


Good issue based stuff at:
 http://www.oneworld.net/anydoc2.cgi?url=http://www.oneworld.net/uk/front.shtml


Nun of the above
 http://www.nunoftheabove.org/
Register a vote for 'nun of the above' if the current available options do not appeal

Guilty Party
 http://www.guiltyparty.cc/
DJ collective, Coldcut have launched their own satirical 'Guilty Party' website and have released a track - Re:Volution - to coincide with the election campaign.

Vote for Bob Dobbs
 http://www.thefreeparty.org.uk/
The Free Party was formed to give people in Brighton, Kemp Town & Hove who have become disillusioned and disassociated with politics a platform to register their discontent.

Nobody cares - vote Nobody!
 http://uk.geocities.com/votenobody/
Based in Bristol, the Nobody campaign urges a vote for Nobody. "Wherever there is disillusionment with the sham of British electoral politics, Nobody is ready to make a stand. After all, Nobody will make a difference."

vote 4 me


Election Selection 2

01.06.2001 17:10

List of interesting / funny election sites from
 http://www.voxpolitics.com/laughs.shtml

Games and gags

Kiss the baby
 http://www.odconsultancy.com/kissthebaby/play.html
Kiss the babies to win more votes for your party - beware of the mummies.

Stereo MP's
 http://www.mtv.co.uk/content/fun/games/stereo_mps/index.html
Make Tony, William or Ann dance to your favorite tune

Parliament Invaders 2001
 http://www.sonce.net/envaders
Defend Parliament with your choice of politician, carefully avoiding the mad cows....

Crouching Tony, Hidden Hague
 http://www.crouchingtony.com/
Excellent take-off of the Nintendo and Playstation game, Tekken, using a choice of William and Tony as opponents.

Pac Man Labour-style
 http://www.labour.org.uk/Cut-N-Run-web.html
A pac man take off - inviting the player to navigate around the game board steering William Hague into number 10 by cutting as many costs as possible, along the way. Created by the Labour party.

Fantasy Election
 http://www.fantasyelection2001.com/
Find out which political party most closely meets your ideals and create your fantasy PM

Am I electable or not?
 http://www.amielectableornot.com
Submit the photo of who you would most like to be in the Cabinet

Who do I vote for?
 http://www.whodoivotefor.co.uk
If you're not sure who to vote for, take this test.

You are Tony Blair
 http://www.thebrainstrust.co.uk/yatb/
How will you make your way to campaign victory?

Splat 'em!
 http://images.thisislondon.com/img/news/election2001/
splatgame.html
Splat the residents of 10 Downing Street or  http://www.panlogic.co.uk/splat_the_MP.html the House of Commons. If you throw an egg at John Prescott you get 'two jabs' - reference to the recent scuffle.

More punching with Prescott games.....

'Boxing with Biffa'
 http://www.sirsearchalot.com/biffa.htm
Catch the eggs with your mouse but avoid Biffa's boxing gloves

'Punch with Prezza'
 http://election.scotsman.com/ game
Click on the link on the left.

Prezza
 http://www.rancon.co.uk/prezza/main.html
More egg throwing and punching

Fat Cat?
 http://www.odconsultancy.com/kissthebaby/issue1/play.html

Right, William
 http://www.geocities.com/johnkathywedding/go3.htm
Use this Frogger clone to help William Hague get to the Far Right!

The C-team
 http://www.guydowman.com/Images/a-team.shtml
Ann Widdecombe meets BA Barachus

Zap!
 http://www.friendlygiants.co.uk/
Politically themed space invaders

Urban 75
Punch or warp your least favourite politician.
 http://www.urban75.com/Punch/index.html
 http://www.urban75.com/warp/portillo.html
or silence them
 http://www.urban75.org/useless/blair.html
 http://www.urban75.org/useless/hague.html
 http://www.urban75.org/useless/widdecombe.html

Anagrams.net has a good politics page. Tony Blair: I’m a Tory plan B and Peter Mandelson: Lamented Person.
 http://www.anagrams.net/politics/

The Anagram genius directory also contains some good political word play.
Liberal Democrats translates to ‘All mediocre brats’ and the Ulster Unionist Party ‘Plain Untrusty Tories’
 http://www.genius2000.com/agdir/ukpolitics.html

MyLittleTony.com
 http://www.mylittletony.com/
Tony the Pony (actually a ‘linguabot’) will answer all your questions – including which is his favourite Spice Girl. You must have the macromedia Flash 5 plug in to view.

Tonygochi
 http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/2840/
indexy.html
Download your own Tonygochi pet so you can have your own pet Tony Blair on your desktop. You can see him generate new policies and attend focus groups while feeding and caring for your virtual PM.

Campaigns

Joke e-mail.com
 http://jokeemail.com/political.htm
A good example of how email can be used to spread the word. Based in the US, the politics section encourages the user to send 'George Bush slogans' and 'Florida one liners' to their friends. The site has been used over 300,000,000 times.

Conservative manifesto.co.uk
 http://www.conservativemanifesto.co.uk/
An interesting version of the Conservative Manifesto

New Labour Party?
 http://www.new-labour-party.org.uk/

Euro-trash
 http://www.euro-trashed.com/
Anti-Europe site

Bring back Mandy
 http://www.bringbackmandy.com
Site dedicated to renewing the career of Peter Mandleson

The unofficial Peter Mandleson fan club
 http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~johnson/portillo/portaloo.html

The National Association of Ted Heath Burners
 http://blake.prohosting.com/~nathb/nathb.htm
Campaigning for effigies of Ted Heath to be burned on November the 5th for leading the country into the European Economic Community

Picture Gallery

Demon Eyes II
 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010515/80/bq3r8.html

The history of election cartoons
 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,9352,488233,00.html

Satire

www.fluffycow.com
 http://www.fluffycow.com
A platform allowing digital artists and online pranksters to make a contribution to General Election fever.

Herd of Sheep
 http://www.herdofsheep.com
"The news shepherd for news sheep"

e-politicians
 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/firstpastthepost/
0,9433,451806,00.html
Meet e-Tony, e-Charles and e-William. Subscribe to their mailing lists and send them your opinons.

Be Aware
 http://www.be-aware.org.uk/
Surreal party site

The Brains Trust
 http://www.thebrainstrust.co.uk/
Satirical news magazine that the Guardian dubs "The British son of the Onion"

The Commentary Box
 http://www.thecommentarybox.co.uk
An ‘e-zine’ covering sport and pop culture but has a specific politics section that’s worth a visit.

Spinon.co.uk
 http://www.spinon.co.uk/
This e- zine includes loads of animated games such as the ‘Hague goes trucking’ simulator, ‘Who wants to be dubya?’ and a ‘Prescott vote randomiser’

Laugh at Politicians
 http://www.geocities.com/laughatpoliticians/
See Robin Cook with three eyes and Blair the Bogeyman here.

Private Eye
 http://www.private-eye.co.uk/
Online version of the famous satirical magazine. Issue 10 at this link has lots of interactive games.  http://privateeye.uk.msn.com/default1.htm

Polisat.com
 http://polisat.com/
US based political satire site soon to launch a worldwide news network. Includes limericks, rhymes and palindromes

vote 4 me


Election Selection 3

01.06.2001 17:10

Cybersquatter Central

 http://www.plaid-cymru.co.uk/
Visit the above to find the entertaining disclaimer: "This site and the domains www.plaid-cymru.co.uk and www.plaid.co.uk are not connected in any way with Plaid Cymru." - From the Welsh Liberal Democrats

 http://www.williamhague.com/
William Hague in the flesh.

 http://www.annwiddecombe.com/
A holding page claiming not to be affiliated with the UK Cannabis Internet Activists

 http://www.tonyblair.co.uk/
Gives you the opportunity to comment on areas of the PM’s policy making you may disagree with and invites you to ‘stick the boot in’.

 http://www.margaretthatcher.co.uk/
This site urges all readers to vote for Ken Livingstone for mayor of London whilst adopting the voice of Margaret Thatcher. Includes links to the unofficial Ken Livingstone site at  http://www.kenlivingstone.com/

 http://www.robincook.org/
'An analysis of the reality behind Labours ‘ethical’ foreign policy' - under construction.

 http://www.clareshort.org/
The secretary of State for International Development has a nice collection of indoor potted plants?

 http://toryparty.co.uk
Leading you to the Socialist workers party

And here are some non-humorous domain hijackers….

 http://www.robincook.com
 http://www.johnprescott.co.uk
 http://www.jackstraw.co.uk
 http://www.libdems.com


vote 4 me


Dixon responds

05.06.2001 08:55

John 'Tricky' Dixon responds again and puts it right ...

From: John Dixon
Address - Block Sender
To: Daniel Brett
Subject: Re: FOUND OUT
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 22:10:50 +0100

I think I finally worked out what you're complaining about - not the fact that I own the site, but the fact that it's currently directed at a page about high server demand - I thought you were worried about the mini web site I set up, which is what I sent you the BBC press cutting from.

If you'd said what it was that was your problem, I could have sorted this out ages ago. I'd completely forgotten that I'd left the domain pointing to that page - we had about 20,000 hits an hour on the mini-site at one point,
which is why I had to take the site down, as it was slowing access to the main Welsh party site.

Look again now, and you should be more than happy. If you'd been a bit more specific and a bit less aggressive, I'd have sorted this out last week when you first emailed me.


Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk