Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

So what's going on here? Rage bait style thread has been whitewashed to remove blatant racism...

6 replies

BoobsOnTheMoon · 02/12/2025 06:23

...and when I queried it with MNHQ I got a very strange answer Hmm

This thread started off with an OP that made specific reference to a child with a "foreign sounding name". Several posters, including me, responded to that calling out the racism.

MNHQ, even though the OP hadn't been back to the thread, removed that sentence completely. The multiple replies calling out the racism then made no sense at all. The edit isn't like when a poster edits, because you can't still see the previous version. So effectively it's been whitewashed. Bang and the racism is gone. Nothing to see here.

I was pissed off about this because yesterday MNHQ had told me it wasn't in fact possible to edit a post of mine to clear up the meaning, despite it only being a fairly small error. So I emailed and asked them to clarify what the rules are about editing posts for people after the edit window closes.

I got a reply that didn't really make a lot of sense, telling me that in this case the OP was edited because it "was a significant content error". This is extremely odd wording for removing all trace of the outright racism in an OP, especially where the poster has never posted before and hasn't returned to the thread. The OP actually has a number of AI tells, and is very much edging towards obvious rage bait, and I'm not entirely convinced the poster is genuine. In fact, given the very odd reasoning from MNHQ and the goady style of the post, I'm starting to wonder if MNHQ know that its AI rage bait and are letting it stand anyway, and only edited it to make it less obvious.

So can anyone clear up why this post was edited in this way despite the OP vanishing? Why was it described to me as "a significant content error" when it was nothing of the sort? What's that wording about? Did the poster ask for the bit about the "foreign sounding name" to be removed and if so how come that was ok when other posters are told their posts can't be changed for them? Is the poster even real, or are MNHQ knowingly allowing/collaborating with AI rage bait bots to drive engagement? Something feels really off here tbh.

BeckyAMumsnet · 02/12/2025 09:05

Hi everyone - we're looking into what happened here and will report back ASAP.

BeckyAMumsnet · 02/12/2025 09:32

Hi all, thanks for your patience while we looked into this.

Just to clarify, the OP didn’t request the change. In this case, the moderator handling a report about the thread misread it and edited the post rather than reviewing the thread properly. That wasn’t the right call, and we’re sorry.

We can see how the edit made the replies look disconnected, and why it felt like we were trying to scrub out the context. That wasn’t the intention, but we understand why people were frustrated by it. The correct approach would have been to remove the thread and look into the OP, and we’ve now done that.

More generally, we’re happy to edit titles or posts where it helps with clarity, as long as we’re not rewriting history. If you’ve asked for an edit and felt we weren’t fair or consistent, please do get in touch as we’d like the chance to review.

We’re taking steps to make sure this kind of mistake doesn’t happen again, but as always, if you're unhappy with any aspect of our moderation, do let us know.

BeckyAMumsnet · 02/12/2025 09:38

@PinkFrogss all moderators receive regular, ongoing training, including on recognising and handling racism. We’re following up with the moderator involved today to make sure this situation is fully reviewed and not repeated.

BeckyAMumsnet · 02/12/2025 09:50

@MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack we can confirm the poster does not work for MNHQ. On closer inspection this morning, they appear to be a previously banned user with a history of similar posts.

This was a genuine cock-up, not a conspiracy, and we’re following up today to understand exactly how such an obvious mistake happened.

BeckyAMumsnet · 02/12/2025 10:57

@BoobsOnTheMoon the next moderator assumed this was an edit the OP had requested to fix a mistake. That was wrong, and we didn’t handle it properly. Just to be clear, the OP clearly broke our Talk guidelines and should have been removed as soon as it was first reported. As we've said, we're conducting a full review today as to why that didn't happen.

JustineMumsnet · 08/12/2025 11:16

This reply has been deleted

posted on the wrong thread

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread