Until very recently, many of the diamonds arising from Africa, the world’s diamond mining center, were associated with bloody civil conflicts. In many cases, miners were forced by armed rebels to give up the fruits of their labor, and the diamonds were then sold to fuel fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of people. In response to international pressure, the diamond industry and interested governments came together in the early 2000s to form the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, a voluntary organization intended to keep these so-called “blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds” out of the world diamond market. Ideally, the Kimberly Process follows diamonds from the ground to the jeweler, ensuring that the integrity of the industry is maintained. By 2006, the 46-member Kimberly Process group could claim that they controlled 99.8% of the diamonds in the market, and that almost no blood diamonds were in circulation at the moment. Their claims are loudly trumpeted on the official website of the World Diamond Council (WDC), Diamondfacts.org.

Recently, however, those claims have come under fire from a parody site called RealDiamondfacts.org — and this new site is creating quite a stir. The parody site is the work of the Diamonds for Africa Fund (DAF), which points out serious problems with the Kimberly Process and takes exception with many of the WDC’s statements about the modern diamond industry. According to the parody site, significant corruption associated with the diamond trade is still endemic to countries like Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, all former centers of blood diamond profiteering. Not only are blood diamonds still leaking into the market at a prodigious rate, primarily through Ghana, but the DAF claims the WDC ignores the harsh facts of human rights abuses in the African diamond industry (especially child labor), poor working conditions, and widespread ecological destruction. For example, Botswana — typically held up as a shining example of the good diamonds can do for a developing nation — recently evicted a group of San Bushman from their homelands when diamonds were found there. This isn’t something one would find mentioned on Diamondfacts.org.

Naturally, the WDC has spoken out against the DAF’s site, taking the stance that they are saddened that the DAF would parody such an important issue. The WDC spokesman pointed out that while they have never tried to deny the past atrocities of the blood diamond trade, the issue is ancient history, thanks to the Kimberly Process. Their site is intended to not only educate people about the diamond trade’s sordid past, but also to ensure that those practices are never repeated, and to showcase the force for good that the diamond industry can be for the poor countries of Africa.

But the real point is, is Realdiamondfacts.org truly a parody? While it copies the template and format of Diamondfacts.org, it brings to light specific problems in the industry that really do need to be solved. On the other hand, it’s also a front for the DAF, which was co-founded by the Canadian diamond company Brilliant Earth, and urges people to buy only Canadian diamonds. While the DAF claims the laudable goal of collecting donations to assist “African communities ravaged by the diamond trade,” its blatant call for the purchase of Canadian diamonds — and its documented association with Brilliant Earth — damage its credibility. Its critics, including the Partnership Africa Canada, believe that using five-year-old conflict diamond stories and making donations to irresponsible and often corrupt Africa governments isn’t going to accomplish much.

So who’s right? As is so often the case, the truth likely lies in the middle. There truly are still problems in the African diamond industry, but then again, as of 2006, the Kimberly Process was only three years old. On the one hand, you have an infant organization struggling to clean up a corrupt industry and focused on maintaining what is, for now, the status quo; on the other you have a well-meaning organization that’s also hawking Canadian diamonds out of obvious self-interest. It seems you’ll have to pick your information as carefully as you kick your diamonds.