Why didn't Mumsnet delete my post??

[Larafromthe80s]

Just curious... I started a thread which detailed a lot of information about a situation I was in, thankfully I'd name changed for it!
Anyway it blew up and got picked up by a regional media outlet
I reported the thread to Mumsnet and continued to do so over the following 72 hours, as well as emailing them directly.
By this point the article was in 3 nationals and around 6 regionals

A family member screen shot the news article from his Facebook newsfeed to me saying as a joke "this isn't you isn't" as he he hadn't actually read the article, only the headline and thought it was just coincidental. And it was me 😖
I was mortified and am living in fear that the people it was about will have seen it.
Why did Mumsnet take so long to delete it, is that normal?

I'd never post about my life on MN I read and sometimes reply to something but that's about as far as I will go. The cookie permissions on this forum alone tells me this site loves to sell my data so no way would I post my life story here for that to be sold too.

@CatNameChange101

So why did you say ‘under GDPR they have to delete’?

She’s clearly not a lawyer, no lawyer I know would make that statement without being able to back it up. And then backtrack to say that by ‘they have to delete’ she actually meant she would advise deleting.

That kind of wishy washy advice would make everyone doubt her at my company.

Yep. Precisely.

@phishy This is a public chat forum. Of course I don't write here as I would at work. You want me to post an executive summary of my recommendations?
It is simply a chat forum.
I never said I was a lawyer.
I do know about GDPR and it irritates me to see people who obviously don't understand GDPR legislation telling me I am wrong.
But it is simply a chat forum. I am not posting in the manner I would for an employer and it is bizarre for you to think I would.

Monopoly the issue is several others who ‘know about’ GDPR have disputed what you have said, and held similar reasoning for saying it was nonsense. You have back-pedalled not very well and are now just digging your heels in.

‘ I learnt years ago that if you wouldn’t post it with your full name, don’t post it.’

Good advice.
Also, don’t write anything in an email about someone that you would not say to their face. Once such an email is sent, it is beyond your control & can be shared.

I think the posters who get deleted within 20mins ‘because of x y z) are fake articles. The ones posted by real people make them money so they don’t like to delete them.

@CatNameChange101

She posted identifiable information online. That is not Mumsnet breaching GDPR… They have done nothing to make her identifiable, OP did that on her own.

Mumsnet are considered the publishers of our words, in law. It doesn't matter that we write them. Mumsnet still publishes them on the web, and continues to publish them as long as the content is live.

If any of us write something libellous here, for example, Mumsnet is responsible for it in the eyes of the law, in the same way as a news website would be for publishing what people say. Gina Ford used this to her advantage when she didn't like what people here were writing about her. She threatened to hold Mumsnet responsible.

I don't know whether posting stuff here counts as identifiable for the purposes of GDPR as I don't know enough about GDPR - but I do know that it's wrong to say that because we write the content that MN isn't responsible for it - they are.

Caveat - that MN is considered publishers doesn't mean we're NOT responsible for our words here (before anyone takes what I said to mean you won't get in trouble for being libellous! You could well, it's just MN would get in trouble too)

I don't know whether posting stuff here counts as identifiable for the purposes of GDPR

It doesn’t

@Larafromthe80s

Just curious... I started a thread which detailed a lot of information about a situation I was in, thankfully I'd name changed for it! Anyway it blew up and got picked up by a regional media outlet I reported the thread to Mumsnet and continued to do so over the following 72 hours, as well as emailing them directly. By this point the article was in 3 nationals and around 6 regionals A family member screen shot the news article from his Facebook newsfeed to me saying as a joke "this isn't you isn't" as he he hadn't actually read the article, only the headline and thought it was just coincidental. And it was me 😖 I was mortified and am living in fear that the people it was about will have seen it. Why did Mumsnet take so long to delete it, is that normal?

Mumsnet gets a lot of free publicity/traffic to this site when they exploit their contributors this way. If they didn't want this to happen they would copyright everything.

I'm sorry this happened to you.

Why doesn't Mumsnet employ Caveat Emptor. I think that you really need to think carefully before posting on here, and if you take the risk, and your thread is picked up by the media and is identifiable - TOO BAD. You made the choice to post. Everyone knows there is a chance their thread couple be picked up. Ffs, everyone knows that! So don't post unless you are prepared to accept that. People put time and effort into responding, and the OP, who made the choice to post, knowing the risks, then decides to whinge and get the thread deleted. It's immature. Post knowing the risks, or don't post at all. There should be absolutely no thread deletions just because the OP 'changed their mind'. I am so bloody sick of this. You take the risks, and that's that.

Its not mumsnet fault that you made your post way too outing its well known the posts from here end up on other media outlets.
Bit silly on your part really. Only yourself yo blame in this situation op

While i agree that mn hq have an inconsistent approach to this the reality is that if you will post identifying information on a public website then there is a chance the people you don’t want to read it will read it, even if it doesn’t get picked up by the tabloids.

You and you alone are responsible for what you put online, once you type out your life story and make it public knowledge you lose the right to control what happens to it or who reads it.

It genuinely baffles me that people compromise themselves so much and then seem to think that its someone else’s responsibility to deal with. It isn’t.

MN isn’t responsible for your safety, you are.

I think if you request to take your post down, Mumsnet should be legally obliged to do so,or if not legally,then morally.
And if it's down to Mumsnet getting paid and that's why they don't,then this is absolutely appalling.
It puts me.off using it

They were really lovely and understanding when it happened to me. Deleted immediately, helped change name on old posts, etc. Honestly really great. I guess it depends who receives your message maybe??

Only on Mumsnet could you have a thread descend into who knows more about GDPR 🤣

Newspapers pick up articles from here all the time, it's shit that they do but it's a risk we all take when posting on public forums

I always thought journalists were supposed to check their sources before “going to print”

Anyone could make up complete BS and it gets printed in a national newspaper as truth.
Why bother doing a degree in journalism if all you are going to produce is copied and pasted fiction and comments from SM.

Utterly bizarre they do this as if anything badly affects someone’s mental or physical health If they aren’t careful there could be blood on their hands and a court case to defend.

I think if you request to take your post down, Mumsnet should be legally obliged to do so,or if not legally,then morally.

The problem there is they would essentially have an empty site. AIBU wouldn’t exist as OP would post, everyone responds ‘yes you are, very much so’, OP says ‘I don’t agree with you all’, then asks for the thread to be deleted simply because they didn’t get the echo chamber they wanted.

Or, OP comes on and says ‘my neighbours butchers aunts therapists cousin feels the cold at 25deg, always has the heating on and moans about the bill - aren’t they being unreasonable. Then comes back and asks for it to be deleted because they believe that will completely identify ??? I’ve seen that on situations which people believe are unique yet could literally apply to 25% of the population.

The end result would be a site with no visitors as there is no point, 90% if threads would be deleted within hours of anyone posting, so seems pointless reading or commenting. Limited traffic to site = greatly decreased revenue = site closing down.

@caringcarer

If you want something removed instantly just have a little moan about Meghan Markle and it will be taken down in a flash.

or criticise the McCanns

The criticism of both Meghan Markle and the McCanns on here has been disgusting so I can’t blame MNHQ for not wanting those threads up.

It’s far too simplistic to say people ‘shouldn’t’ post, or only post within the exact perimeters of what certain posters deem acceptable.

I think one of the problems is that you can be pushed into giving out more information than you want - some posters can be very demanding and you also can be subjected to a certain amount of ridicule either for name changing or for refusing to give our certain pieces of information. That’s often by the same sorts of posters who are here ridiculing people for giving out personal info. Funny, that.

It’s far too simplistic to say people ‘shouldn’t’ post, or only post within the exact perimeters of what certain posters deem acceptable

It’s not about what certain posters deem acceptable though. It’s about posting stuff that posters then regret and want deleting. Very often after posters have spent time commenting and trying to help.

It’s far too simplistic to say people ‘shouldn’t’ post, or only post within the exact perimeters of what certain posters deem acceptable not really.

Posters seem to be under the misilusion that they’re posting in a “safe space” when actually they’re doing nothing of the sort.

Even if your thread isn’t picked up by the tabloids it’s still in the public domain with potentially publicly identifiable information on it if you so choose to share it.

People give far too much credibility to the press when they say that mn should be deleting posts, yet there are examples of people whose posts have been recognised by someone they know reading them on here.

Essentially, posting on mn is like standing blindfold in the street and preaching your personal business to the passers by. You have no idea who they are, but they can see who you are. If you wouldn’t be comfortable doing that in the street then you shouldn’t be doing it on a public website.

I posted a thread about a personal and potentially identifying situation a few weeks ago which made the top of the ‘trending now’ section of the website. It was very outing and I hadn’t thought to name change so was worried about it being picked up by the press someone in real life seeing it and being able to search through my past posts. The thread was deleted within about fifteen minutes of me reporting it and asking for it to be removed even though it had plenty of replies. I assumed this was standard but maybe not.