Fathers 4 Justice and their recent attacks on Mumsnet

[JustineMumsnet]

Some of you may have noticed that a group called Fathers 4 Justice has been saying some pretty unpleasant things about us over the last couple of weeks. In an 'advert' which appeared first on Facebook and then in yesterday's edition of the I, the group claims Mumsnet 'promotes gender hatred', and labels 'men and boys as rapists, paedophiles and wife beaters'. It calls on advertisers to suspend advertising on Mumsnet.

Most people, I'm quite sure, will see the adverts and the 'campaign' behind them for precisely what they are: a naked attempt to court publicity by a group of people who for whatever reason appear to have tired of climbing cranes in superhero outfits. (And, just coincidentally, in the run up to Mothers' Day). In fact it feels a bit like having a particularly irritating toddler repeatedly prodding you with a stick to get some attention.

By and large it seemed most sensible to ignore them, not least because we've had our hands quite full with stuff that actually matters, like Mumsnet's 'We believe you' campaign to dispel rape myths.

But since Fathers 4 Justice appear to have attracted some grown ups' attention, we thought we should tell you a bit about the background to this attack, the truth behind their allegations, and how they are trying to bully us and other organisations. Here are 10 things you should know.

1. On March 3rd a Mumsnet user started a conversation about a poster campaign being touted on Mumsnet's Facebook wall by Fathers 4 Justice, and the fact that Fathers 4 Justice was bombarding a number of sites with this troubling image.

1. A conversation then ensued on Mumsnet about Fathers 4 Justice and their tactics which some members of Fathers 4 Justice joined. Some Mumsnetters said some pretty harsh things.

1. We deleted a number of posts that broke our forum guidelines regarding personal attacks. In total we deleted 70 posts from the thread which went on over the next few days and reached 1000 posts in total. 60 were posts were made by regular Mumsnet members, ten or so by new joiners from Fathers 4 Justice. Our community managers reminded users to follow forum guidelines on nine separate occasions and at least one prolific Mumsnetter left the site in protest at our deletion policy.

1. On March 7th and March 8th MNHQ received a series of emails from the Campaign Director of Fathers 4 Justice containing threats of legal action and a threat to contact our advertisers. At the same time comments on the Fathers 4 Justice Facebook page describing Mumsnetters as 'barking mad harridans', 'weird sex obsessed paranoid perverts' and 'child abusing contact blockers' were left unmoderated. As were comments that described me variously as a 'dried up old hag', 'an evil woman' and having an 'IQ that would return a negative score'.

1. On March 11th Fathers 4 Justice posted another attack ad this time accusing M&S of 'sponsoring hateful, bigoted and prejudiced comments about men and boys on Mumsnet' and demanding that M&S withdraw all advertising on Mumsnet or face a boycott. It accused the company of 'serving up gender hatred for Mother's Day'.

1. Other organisations have experienced similar bullying tactics. In recent weeks Fathers 4 Justice have targeted the lone parents' support charity, Gingerbread, jamming up its telephone helplines. Senior NGO staff have told us they felt too intimidated to speak out against them.

1. The suggestion that Mumsnet encourages gender hatred would be funny if it were not so offensive - and plain silly. The central aim of Mumsnet is to make parents' (mothers' and fathers') lives easier. There are many and varied opinions on the site and no one Mumsnet party line prevails, save for the view that we respect diverse opinion. We do not pre-moderate or vet comments made to our discussion boards of which there are around 30 000 every day. Men are and always have been extremely welcome on Mumsnet - we have a Dadsnet forum for Dads to talk directly with other men should they wish. We estimate that around 5-10% of our 2 million odd monthly users are men.

Of course you can always find plenty of Mumsnetters whinging about their male partners' shortcomings - more than there are whinging about their female partners' shortcomings - but generalisations are swiftly pounced on and we do not tolerate gender hatred, or any other kind of hatred for that matter (save maybe hatred of Fruitshoots). We encourage people to be civil and supportive and, in the main, most people are.

1. Fathers 4 Justice campaigns for fathers to have access to their children following separation or divorce. Its founder, Matt O'Connor, says parents have 'fewer rights than a terrorist'. The organisation was temporarily disbanded in 2006 after it emerged that some of its members had plotted to kidnap Tony Blair's son Leo. Fathers 4 Justice boasts that it is 'the most controversial and high profile pressure group of modern times' but it has struggled to win public attention since abandoning its eye-catching tactic of scaling tall structures in superhero costumes. In recent weeks it has targeted Cafcass, the body responsible for protecting the rights of children in court proceedings, Gingerbread, the charity for single parents, (which it claimed supported 'the abuse of children') and Mumsnet. It has also, somewhat mysteriously, branded London 2012 'the fatherless games'.

1. We believe that the issue of father's access to children is important and needs to be discussed. We understand that many Fathers 4 Justice campaigners are driven by intense personal anger over what they feel is injustice they have suffered in their own cases. But the recent actions the group have taken against Mumsnet and others constitute plain and simple bullying and intimidation and only harm its cause.

10. Reading this, you may well already be spitting tacks by now. Please do remember that's precisely what Fathers 4 Justice want. If you post on the subject please keep it civil. We won't be bullied, but we don't want to be dragged into the mire either.

Many thanks.

I just thank god that there are such fabulous people on MN who offer support and guidance on every issue that comes up in modern day life!! Well done Justine, you're a legend. Being the mother of a child whos father has been diagnosed as causing a 'significant' risk of harm to our DS and yet still I nasty bitter evil mother insist on contact, albeit safe, being crucial to my DS development and emotional wellbeing, I find it abhorent that these men idiots strip off, get their bits out and think that this makes them a worthy cause. Go and bully someone else......we (all of us responsible parents....both men and women) aint for turningTo every mother and good father out there and lets have a

I remember being a new partner to a twunty ex, believing everything he had to say about his previous ex who treated him awfully and was a psychotic bitch who controlled his life. Then I became the psychotic bitch ex who controlled his life, funny how that works out.

Smells, I wish more would read and believe what you are saying!

Gutted! Ive just been removed from F4J for a rather innocent comment. Seems you cannot have any opinion at all unless it is Matt is King dick Kong!!!

Thanks Justine for responding to my earlier post with Deargdoom.

Nice to know I'm actually right sometimes

I really do think MN and MNers have handled this brilliantly and I'm proud to be one, unfortunatly?, as stewie proved - our collective dignified response is making them angrier.

And it's a damn shame because somewhere, buried deep under the aggression and general bullyingness of F4J lays a valid point.

Fathers do have rights, should be active in their child(rens) lives. Something I've seen said on MN millions of times.

AF

Of course fathers' have rights.

These tend to go hand in hand with responsibilities and this often appears to be a sticking point.

true, Estro

I read this comment on the F4J site and it made me lol

''thankfully there.s not enough evidence for an offensive weapon charge''

Smells are you quoting on the wrong thread, were you intending to post on a war type, gaming thread?

gawd, this had largely passed me by. how... odd. i'm all for fathers having rights to see their children (aren't we all, barring incident? that's certainly the impression i've got during my many years on here) but that poster makes me seriously, seriously doubt the judgement and indeed intelligence of the F4J lot.

will be off to Marks & Spencer tomorrow, in solidarity.

Have you a link to the F4J membersship in question

I believe it's on the F4J FB page

brace yourself ! (not)

Thing is, they've only done this in order to get masses of free publicity by jumping on the MN bandwagon.

The best thing to do would be to ignore them.

If they get no publicity from it, they'll go away and do something else.

It's a little unfair to laugh at the size, or lack, of the membership. It was cold yesterday so I am sure some members stayed inside.

I spent a lot more in M&S than I expected but now I see it was for a good cause .

Which reguar mner have we lost because of this?

It hasn't worked has it - can't find anything about Matt's M&S protest on the BBC. He must be really disappointed.

Am off there later on. Now that Hooters in Bristol is closing down, we can all put that unfortunate episode behind us and Never Speak Of It Again. What a relief, it was terribly difficult boycotting them.

Thanks F4J for giving me the excuse I needed to go back to them. And thanks Mumsnet for playing a blinder on this one.

Basil you're right I had a quick trawl of the news sites & it was a complete non-event.

I hope it rains all day -protestors don't do rain I've noticed, particularly nakkid ones!

Have just (sort of) caught up with all this and wanted to join in with the standing ovation for the dignity and consideration MNHQ have shown. Thank you :).

I missed out on the furore I don't have FB.
An excellent statement Justine. Well done.
Will go to M+S today to buy DD some knickers or something.