Days before the Federal and Queensland governments gave the green light for Adani , an Indian mining company, to proceed with its $10 billion Carmichael project in the Gallilee Basin, GetUp , the independent and not for profit campaign group, sent out the following surprising email :-
This is almost too dirty to believe. Adani is
a coal company with a record of environmental destruction across the world:
destroying conservation areas, bribing government officials, and blatantly
ignoring environmental regulations. Now they want Australians to trust them
with the world's largest coal export facility
on the Great Barrier Reef coastline. So when GetUp members made a video
explaining Adani's history, it went
viral online and was noticed by potential investors across the world.
Then, suddenly, it disappeared. It looks
like an individual who has a business relationship with Adani set up a fake
website, uploaded our video, and launched
a copyright action claiming our video as
their own. That means the video
has been taken down just days after Adani
announced it was
looking for banks
to fund their project.
We can't be silenced now. It's time to fight back. We're urgently working with
lawyers and
YouTube, and we're confident the video will be back online soon.
But that's not enough. The message is obviously working - so let's supercharge
it. If
enough of us chip in, we can make
sure every investor, banker or politician who researches Adani sees the video
and learns that this company should not be trusted to operate on our
Great
Barrier Reef.
http://www.getup.org.au/silenced
Here's what we know about this video incident:
A copyright complaint was lodged to YouTube by someone from an obscure
website. The website is mostly empty, containing only random pieces of content.
The website has uploaded an exact copy of our Adani video through a different
video provider, back-dated the video to last year, and claimed it as their
own.
The person who uploaded the content and lodged the copyright claim has a
very distinctive name, which also happens to be the name of someone who works
for an Indian insurance company. This same insurance company also happens to be
a close business partner with none other than Adani. Doesn't look good, does
it?
The video puts the spotlight on Adani's frightening track record. It highlights
Adani's documented history of theft, bribery and corruption. It implores
investors not to help Adani construct the biggest coal mine in Australia, build
the world's biggest coal port on the Reef coastline, or traffic coal through
the Great Barrier Reef on thousands of ships.
The video had been seen by tens of thousands, including many of Adani's
potential investors. Online platform Upworthy picked up the video,
giving it truly global exposure. Just
days after it was released, the Courier Mail wrote a piece titled "India's
Ministry of Environment found Adani violated environmental conditions but
company expected to be allowed Queensland mine".
And now, at the most critical moment for Adani's plans to industrialise our
Reef, the video has been removed. This is our chance to show we will not be
silenced by anyone. That our voices, together, are bigger than whoever is
trying to hide the truth.
If enough of us chip in, we can make sure that every time someone searches for
Adani online, the first thing they find is our video - a clear explanation of
their history of bribery and environmental breaches. http://www.getup.org.au/silenced
Click here to get involved.
PS - We're working with online advertising experts to target investors,
bankers, business partners, and politicians both where they read their news,
and any time they research Adani's project online. Every time someone searches
"Adani" or "Abbot point" or similar terms, there's a
bidding war between advertisers who want their ad displayed. So if we want to reach potential
investors, and show that Adani is not trusted by Australians, every extra
dollar beats these people at their own game. Alone, none of us can fight back
against a huge company like that, but together, we can make sure that everyone
knows they should not be trusted with our Reef. Can you join us?
A southern media report claims Adani is in dire financial straits .
