The MNHQ Moderation team

[BarrackerBarmer]

Dear MNHQ

I'm very grateful for the commitment to free speech you've publicly taken, and for Justine's courage this week.

A former disgruntled employee of MN is writing on Twitter about the 'transphobia' of MN staff, and calling you TERFs. She is showing a great deal of bias and intolerance towards women with feminist views, this may well be her honest opinion, which is no big deal I suppose, since she is no longer an employee.

At least, it isn't an issue until she calls a shout out to her
'friends who still work at MN' to report and take down posts by 'transphobic scum', by which she appears to be referring to any poster objecting to being called TERF by her friend.

Regardless of the personal views of the MNHQ staff, who should be as free to hold their own views as I am mine, I am disturbed that there may be a small contingent of employees who are invested in unfair moderation and will not be applying fair-handed principles, at least if the claims of this ex-employee are credible.

Can you please give posters some reassurance that the difficult job of fair-handed moderation isn't being abused by the 'friends' of ex-employees who are 'reporting it all' and taking down posts because any gender criticism means the poster is 'transphobic scum'?

Thank you.

Crikey

For all we know she (or others on the mod team) could have made lists of user names and email addresses and passed them on to TRAs. Many of these activist groups seem to be young, reckless and dangerously ill-informed about data protection (particularly the GDPR).

This must be investigated.

I couldn't agree more. This cannot stay in house. I expect all the press have the news by now. It would be in MN interest never mind those who had their data stolen for MN to act decisively now.

What a stupid, stupid, stupid person.

Emma, you fucking twit.

@JustineMumsnet - do you have our addresses tied up into our accounts? What info do you hold on us?

It would be in MN interest never mind those who had their data stolen for MN to act decisively now

How would MN know whose data has been accessed? There must be loads of data on people and I am sure that MN can't know exactly which user details have been accessed.

MNHQ should be bloody all over this and trying to find out what data's been accessed... and at least telling us they're doing that would be better than the "there there she's gone and she was only here doing this between these dates" that we got now like a toddler would get if they thought there was a nasty monster under the bed.

Justine did say they are trying to find out what data's been accessed. We don't know what's going on in MNHQ but I would assumer they are all over it. MNHQ can't give a running commentary on an investigation that has just started. I would expect their lawyers would advise them not to do that.

kalapattar There are the people who were in the now deleted screenshots where private data was on the posts as Emma screenshot while on the mod account. They are now all over twitter via the reader app. Those people for a start.

Crikey. That's a bit dumb. Can't imagine Emma getting another job where any degree of trust is required around data protection. Which rules out quite a lot of jobs. Not a smart move. Oh well. Never mind. Probably for the best that the untrustworthiness is revealed now.

MNHQ should be bloody all over this and trying to find out what data's been accessed

I cannot imagine for one moment that they are not investigating this.

It's easy to see your history of usernames so I assume that all of MNHQ have access to that in order to track malicious posts.

& a heads up again for those who are making merry with -what they think is- the 'proof' comment that Mumsnetters are organising to instigate another Section 28.... you really should be aware that you are either

1. incapable of reading for understanding
2. willfully manipulating people and spreading propaganda
3. trusting the wrong sources

"What info do you hold on us?"

^ This.

In particular, do you keep the names and addresses that you collected for Secret Santa?

Where can we check whether our data is showing in twitter?

But anyone could do this at any workplace, no matter how locked down. Nobody can stop employees nowadays from taking sneaky screenshots with their phones, unless they confiscate them on the way in. Which might happen at GCHQ but noone would reasonably expect a web forum employer to do.

The point is, most employees choose not to because they know they are under contract or have signed NDAs stating that they wont release company's confidential or sensitive data and that there will be legal consequences for them if they do. If they still choose to do so, they at least do it anonymously! This person must either be very naïve or happy to sacrifice their career and reputation for a cause. Maybe they hope to make a career out of it like some of the TRAs.

TRAs are always accusing GCs of doxxing. They claimed Maria Mac was trying to doxx Tara wolf when Tara has a public go fund me page for trans related surgeries. They claimed Miranda Yardley was doxxing some mermaids employee who had openly posted about her trans child including their photo online. This is not doxxing. Emma healey posted under her own name and photo, identified herself as a former mumsnet employee and has other social media freely visible under the same name and photo. There is nothing to doxx.

Does anyone know the names of those whose info has been shared or posted?

It is not whistleblowing. It does not meet the criteria for a qualifying disclosure which are:

criminal offence
breach of legal obligation
miscarriage of justice
danger to the h&s of any individual
Dmge to environment
Deliberate attempt to conceal any of the above.

Bumblefuddle It's not hard at all to take phone screenshots in an open plan office. My colleagues and I do it all the time at customer sites to record things we've been working on for ourselves, privately, because it's often so difficult now to copy and send stuff out to yourself (not at all sites, many companies allow me full access to my external email). Nobody has ever pulled me up, despite me being under 2 levels of NDA. And that's not even trying to do it surreptitiously. It is even easier if you're the intern working alone late at night, or you're sitting at your desk "texting your mum" in front of your computer.

The only way companies could stop it is if they had cameras trained on staff at their desks which is problematic, though some banks I've worked in have had this, and, again, the reasonableness test of why MN didnt have that would fail as they are not a financial institution or government agency.

It comes back to why anyone would be stupid enough to do it to themselves. And why actual whistleblowers tend to be anonymous, at least initially.

I don't think the fault lies with MNs security systems.

If a staff member is going to do something like this they will. The onus is on the person that stole the information

I've had quite a few jobs in my time and access to lots of peoples personal and financial information and I've also had external email and the use of a personal or work mobile.

I don't think that's particularly unusual.

I haven't contacted Emma's employer but I do think they have a professional interest in knowing what she has done, especially if she has access to any data at all through them, and especially if this is going to end up in the mainstream media. She used her real name and has put info about her current employer etc on the net. The people she has attacked are thousands of users on a large UK forum mostly occupied by women. It isn't just the people in the screenshots who will be fearful about this breach. Keeping this person in employment may not be the sort of impression they want to give, especially given the job role she is in.

So regardless of whether anyone dobs her in or not, it doesn't look good for her. I don't feel sorry for her exactly but ugh what a huge fuck up to make at such a young age.