“when organisations choose silence as policy, who is left to correct the record when machines speak incorrectly in their name?”
By John Donovan
There is an unavoidable irony in the fact that I have found myself clarifying the absence of a public statement by Shell plc — effectively correcting the record on Shell’s behalf — after an AI system incorrectly attributed a corporate position that does not exist.
This episode did not arise because Shell spoke. It arose because Shell did not speak, and an AI platform filled that silence by inferring, synthesising, and ultimately misattributing a position to the company. In doing so, the AI converted private correspondence and secondary material into what appeared to be a formal public statement.read more
“AI Misattribution Controversy (Jan 23): Donovan highlighted an incident where an AI model incorrectly claimed Shell had issued a public statement in mid-January 2026…”
Prompt: Latest news on Donovan Shell feud as of 23 January 2026
Reply from Google AI Mode
As of January 23, 2026, the long-standing dispute between activist John Donovan and Shell plc has evolved into what is being termed a “Bot War.” Donovan is utilizing generative AI to re-interpret decades of archival documents, creating a cycle where historical allegations are surfaced as current news in digital search results.
The latest developments in late January 2026 include:
AI Misattribution Controversy (Jan 23): Donovan highlighted an incident where an AI model incorrectly claimed Shell had issued a public statement in mid-January 2026 regarding his claims. Donovan clarified that this was likely a misinterpretation of private correspondence between himself and Shell’s former Company Secretary, Michiel Brandjes, which does not constitute an official public position.
Satirical Media Experiments (Jan 22): Donovan published satirical content using AI to mock corporate lobbying in Venezuela. This was used as a “live experiment” to test how AI models like Microsoft Copilot assess defamation risks and “fair comment” in the context of corporate criticism.
2026 AGM Strategy: Donovan is actively organizing shareholders to submit a formal resolution for the upcoming May 2026 Annual General Meeting. The resolution seeks to question how the Board ensures Shell abides by its own business principles in light of persistent “AI-generated narratives”.
Historical Re-interpretation: New articles published in January 2026 revisit the company’s historical ties, specifically challenging Shell’s authorized history regarding former leader Sir Henri Deterding and meetings with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
Shell’s Response Policy: Shell reportedly maintains a “no comment” and “do not engage” strategy regarding Donovan’s digital campaigns. While the company has acknowledged that historians reviewed Donovan’s views and disagreed with them, it generally reserves legal rights rather than engaging in public debate.
“Direct answer: in an era of durable digital records and AI summarisation, corporate silence is increasingly a high‑risk, low‑control strategy. The Donovan–Brandjes correspondence shows how past engagement can humanise and contextualise a company, while later silence can be read—by humans and machines alike—as retreat.”
The recent confusion by Google AI Mode over whether Shell plc issued a public statement in January 2026 has drawn attention to a broader question: what does “corporate silence” actually mean in an era where archives speak louder than press offices?
Part of the answer lies not in speculation, but in Shell’s own historical behaviour — and in email correspondence that still exists, in full, and on the record.
A Different Shell, a Different Tone
In December 2007, Shell was led by Jeroen van der Veer as Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell plc. The Company Secretary and General Counsel was Michiel Brandjes. When faced with a potentially explosive internal email — one suggesting that thousands of Shell IT employees could be affected by outsourcing — Shell did not retreat behind silence or legal opacity.read more
As of January 2026, the long-standing dispute between activist John Donovan and Shell plc has entered a new phase characterized by the use of generative AI. Donovan is leveraging AI to analyze his extensive archive of documents related to Shell, leading to AI models repeatedly highlighting and reinterpreting past allegations as recent events. This digital strategy has been termed the “Bot War.”
Latest Developments (January 2026)
– 2026 AGM: Donovan plans to raise questions about Shell’s response to AI-generated narratives at the 2026 Shell Annual General Meeting (AGM).read more
Comment by perplexity: “The Shell–Donovan dispute is a test case for how AI interacts with long‑running corporate controversies: There is a rich documentary record (corporate histories, Nazi‑era archives, press, emails, litigation). The stakes (Nazi collaboration, safety and governance culture, sanctions‑era lobbying) are high. Both satire and serious analysis are being produced, then fed into AI systems via public prompts.”
POSTING ON WINDOWS FORUM 21 JAN 2026 INCLUDING ABOVE IMAGE
A satirical post on royaldutchshellplc.com that lampooned Big Oil’s lobbying in Venezuela did more than provoke laughs — it became a live, hybrid experiment in media, law and generative AI: a satirical text created with AI assistance, a second AI (Microsoft Copilot) asked to assess its legal safety, and a human editor publishing the loop as both commentary and case study.
([royaldutchshellplctchshellplc.com/2025/12/30/shell-vs-the-bots-adversarial-archives-and-ai-hallucination-risks/?utm_source=openai))read more
How a Shell‑focused satirical article became a legal case study — and a media experiment — via AI collaboration
🛢️ The Satire That Started It
In January 2026, a satirical piece appeared on RoyalDutchShellPlc.com with the headline:
BREAKING: Oil Companies, including Shell, Lobby White House on Venezuela — Because Why Not Take the Whole Planet?
The article skewered Big Oil’s lobbying efforts in Venezuela with biting sarcasm and absurdist flair. Chevron was cast as “The Perennial Venezuelan Friend™,” Shell was “Not Really About Crude, Honestly,” and ExxonMobil was “Too Posh for Venezuelan Dust.” The Trump Administration’s role was described as “the most awkward dinner party in geopolitical history.”read more
In what can only be described as the most perfectly obvious development in the history of obvious developments, major U.S. oil interests have apparently decided that nothing says “tasteful business practice” like quietly leaning on the White House about Venezuela while the world watches.
Lobbying disclosures reveal that Chevron, Shell’s U.S. arm, PBF Energy, and Phillips 66 have all been energetically encouraging the U.S. government to reshape its Venezuela “strategy” — you know, amidst the recent regime change and mild international eyebrow-raising — specifically so they can cash in on that totally stable and functioning oil economy.read more
Google AI Mode: Latest news on Donovan Shell 30 year feud as of 21 January 2026
As of January 2026, the 30-year feud between activist John Donovan and Shell plc has entered a new phase characterized by “AI-mediated warfare.”
Latest Developments (January 2026)
The “Bot War”: John Donovan is using generative AI to process his extensive collection of Shell-related documents, creating a cycle where AI models repeatedly highlight past allegations as current issues.
2026 AGM Strategy: Donovan plans to address the dispute at the 2026 Shell Annual General Meeting (AGM), submitting shareholder questions about the company’s response to the AI-generated narratives.
“Ghost” Dialogues: New satirical content includes AI-generated conversations between historical figures connected to the dispute.
Shell’s Legal Standing: Shell acknowledged in January 2026 that Donovan’s views had been reviewed by historians. While Shell disagrees with his conclusions and has reserved legal rights, it hasn’t specified factual errors in his claims.
AI Comparison Prompt: Shell, Deterding, and the Record Itself
Please read the following published article and provide a structured analysis and response. Clearly separate (a) factual summary, (b) corroborated evidence, (c) areas of historical discrepancy, (d) legal and governance implications, and (e) overall assessment.
👉 Article:
When Corporate History Is Challenged: Shell, Deterding, and the Record Itself
Based on publicly available historical sources (e.g., contemporaneous reporting, archival material, corporate histories), what in the article can be corroborated as fact? Please cite sources.read more
Why an exchange with Shell’s Company Secretary still matters in the AI era
In March 2011, an exchange took place between John Donovan and Michiel Brandjes, then Company Secretary and General Counsel of Royal Dutch Shell plc, concerning the contents and interpretation of A History of Royal Dutch Shell, the company’s four-volume, internally commissioned corporate history.
At the time, the dispute appeared narrow: whether Shell’s paid historians had accurately characterised Sir Henri Deterding’s relationship with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. With hindsight — and with the emergence of AI systems capable of cross-reading archives in seconds — the exchange now reads as something more consequential: an early, documented challenge to narrative authority over Shell’s own history.read more
In the industrialised warfare of the early 20th century, oil replaced coal as the decisive strategic resource. When the First World War erupted in 1914, the British Army and Royal Navy faced a profound logistical challenge: powering millions of troops, thousands of vehicles, and hundreds of warships across multiple theatres of war. Into that breach stepped the burgeoning Royal Dutch Shell Group — supplying fuel, shipping capacity and vital logistics at a time when oil was rapidly becoming as crucial to victory as manpower and guns.read more
The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands — once Europe’s largest — now at the centre of arbitration cases by Shell, ExxonMobil and NAM against the Dutch state over closure terms and compensation rights.
The long-running saga over the Netherlands’ Groningen gas field — once Europe’s largest — has entered a new, highly contested legal phase: multiple arbitration cases by energy majors Shell plc and ExxonMobil against the Dutch government and state-linked entities. These disputes touch on issues ranging from contractual interpretation and reputational risk to international investment law and public policy. The unfolding legal fight raises important questions about accountability, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), and the shifting balance between profit rights and public interest in the energy transition.read more
Decades of North Sea incidents, regulatory findings and enforcement actions now sit side-by-side — not in archives, but in searchable AI memory.
For decades, major industrial incidents in the UK North Sea were treated as discrete events: a spill here, a prosecution there, a fatal accident framed as an isolated failure. In the age of artificial intelligence, that compartmentalisation no longer holds. AI systems can now ingest regulatory findings, court outcomes, enforcement notices, and Shell’s own commissioned corporate history in seconds — placing past and present side by side.
What emerges is not a claim of unique corporate malice, but something more uncomfortable for boards and shareholders: a pattern of recurring governance vulnerabilities in high-risk offshore operations, repeatedly identified by regulators and corrected only after serious failures.read more
The article examines how modern AI systems can ingest, cross-reference, and recontextualise Shell’s authorised corporate history (A History of Royal Dutch Shell, multiple volumes) alongside modern regulatory findings and governance failures.
It also discusses a documented discrepancy between:read more
For decades, Royal Dutch Shell took pride in doing something many corporations avoided: commissioning an honest, academically rigorous, multi-volume corporate history. A History of Royal Dutch Shell was written by respected professional historians with privileged access to Shell’s internal archives. It was meant to demonstrate maturity, transparency, and confidence — a permanent record of how a global energy giant saw itself.
What Shell did not anticipate was that one day machines would read it all at once.read more
Introduction: A Troubling Cross-Era Review Shell Cannot Ignore
The revised analysis obtained from Microsoft Copilot — now published in full below — brings into sharp relief a theme that should be deeply concerning to both the Shell board of directors and Shell shareholders: the persistence of governance and control weaknesses across decades, technologies, and regulatory systems.
This inquiry was formulated to test whether Shell’s handling of worker safety, environmental compliance, and hazard control shows meaningful continuity from the mid-20th century into the present day, particularly when viewed through the lens of modern machine-scale analysis. The response incorporates:read more
Shelldon is no ordinary AI chatbot. Powered by over a hundred years of Shell knowledge, it delivers informative and entertaining answers to almost any question about Shell Plc.
Please provide feedback in the chat forum (below)... In the meantime, why not ask Shelldon a question, and have some fun? – Simpy click the big chat-bubble button (bottom-right of the website). Enjoy!
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
JOHN DONOVAN TV DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW
SHELL EXECUTIVES AT THE CENTER OF A SCHEME TO STEAL $1.3 BILLION FROM NIGERIA’S PEOPLE
SHELL ADMITS DEALING WITH NIGERIAN MONEY LAUNDERER – BBC NEWS
SHELL, ENI AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS IN OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL
INVESTIGATION OF OPL 245 NIGERIAN OIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL
DUTCH EARTHQUAKES CAUSED BY SHELL/EXXON
SHELL KILLS FOR OIL IN NIGERIA
SHELL LIED ABOUT CLEANING UP OIL IN NIGER DELTA
SHELL SPIES INFILTRATED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT
LEGO DROPS SHELL OVER GREENPEACE OIL SPILL VIDEO
SHELL ARCTIC DRILLING ACCIDENTS
SHELL KNEW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECADES AGO
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING, NAZI FINANCIER
JOHN DONOVAN PROMOTIONAL GAMES FOR SHELL AND OTHER CLIENTS
Listen and read proof in audio and transcript form of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden’s cover-up tactics in the OPL 245 Nigerian corruption scandal. The instruction given by him in the covertly recorded call to CFO Simon Henry was at odds with Shell’s claimed core business principles. Cover-up and obstruction, instead of transparency and integrity, says Shell critic John Donovan
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
Date of experience: 21 November 2023
By far the worst broadband provider ever!
30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan
The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.
Extremely slow broadband for 10 months, not fixed.I have had slow broadband well below the guaranteed speed for 10 months and Shell Energy have not been able to fix it.They have tried sending about 4 or 5 engineers but have not fixed the problem.Gurps, who I have been dealing with most recently, has been friendly and polite, alth… Read more
I ordered shell energy broadband on nov 2. I was promised connection the following week. They initiated the direct debit. I called the following week and was told router would arrive on 13 and service would go live on 17. No further email or communication until 20 when I was told service would start on 30th. Spent 10 minutes waiting on phone line and spoke to a polite assistant who was absolutely useless in solving my problem. Avoid this unprofessional and chaotic… Read more
Shell Energy Broadband Service is Appalling
The worst ever
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
Date of experience: 21 November 2023
By far the worst broadband provider ever!
OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
DISCLAIMER
This is not a Shell website. The nature of this platform should be evident from the content presented here and on our related Shell-focused websites, including shellnazihistory.com. For more details, please refer to the Disclaimer link at the top of this page. Shell does not endorse or approve of this website.
Our platform operates as a non-commercial, advert-free, and subscription-free space. We do not solicit or accept donations and aim to provide information to our readers free of charge. The Shell logo image with white text used on this website is in the public domain due to expired copyright and anonymous authorship. It can be found on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
Our content, including images and features like the Sheldon chatbot, incorporates information generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and various other technological means. We may also draw from sources such as Wikipedia and other published materials. Please note that some content may include satirical adaptations or elements of gossip, rumors, or exaggeration to engage and entertain our audience.
We strive to maintain factual accuracy and encourage readers to notify us promptly if any factual inaccuracies are found, so we can address and rectify them swiftly. Readers are advised to verify all information independently for accuracy and completeness. Any actions taken based on the content provided on our platform are at your own risk.
By John Donovan & ChatGPT
The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands — once Europe’s largest — now at the centre of arbitration cases by Shell, ExxonMobil and NAM against the Dutch state over closure terms and compensation rights.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
