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.

There should be dofferent levels of admins on a site like MN.
Emma should only have had access to obfuscated emails and names of users of this site.
This kind of functionality can be developed and I hope that MN has it.
For the job she is doing she has no business knowing my full name and my email address!

twitter.com/Giuliana_London/status/986678345818607617
Mumsnet is finished. Apparently.

Mumsnet is being incredibly open about this. I don't know of any other forum where moderation issues are allowed to be discussed in this way. I was until recently a moderator on an national site and this thread would have been removed as soon as admin had realised what was happening.

So maybe give them a break?

I like mumsnetHQ the mods do great work generally speaking but this is something worth kicking up a stink about.

twitter.com/doormatt134/status/986680131250020352

The Libdems are not making a good impression by trying to score points.

@MargeH all depends on th kind of community you are building. I strongly believe in openess and also havebeen moderating forums for the last 15 years. It always paid to discuss issues openly. It creates trust and cooperation of users on important matters.

Yeah she hasn't been doxxed, as she Tweeted all the stolen data using her real name and photo. There's nothing to doxx there, as she did it herself.

Ah, Giuliana.

There's someone who bloody lives for Mumsnet at the moment.

Some of these TRAs really inhabit a parallel reality. If you’ve got a large website of predominantly women (but also some transwomen) expressing their anger about being silenced on proposed legislative changes which should be open for public debate and sympathetic media coverage about the threat to free speech, a data protection breach designed to frighten said women into silence is stupid beyond belief. Talk about an own goal!

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.

See this is my issue here.
I’ve mentioned this on another thread and MN know (I spoke to them toward the end of last week and over the weekend - they have been very good) that I was threatened last week (with damage to my business and professional registrations) and was told I’m a TERF and my information came from what I’ve written online (particularly my support of the petition) this is the only place I talk about this.
I asked for my account and posts to be deleted but changed my mind last minute because I didn’t want to bow to whoever did it.

Maybe someone has read my posts and put two and two together and actually managed to work out it’s me (although I do change details around and name change from time to time to protect myself)...or it has come from inside.

Presumably Ms Healey is in her early 20s so she's not that young. I have utterly no sympathy for her own mess - she is now unemployable. Who the hell is going to trust her now? And if I was her current employer I would suspend her tonight and then let her go.

Mumsnet needs to urgently review data protection and I think a lot of companies will be doing the same.

This could ultimately lead to a lot of companies banning mobile phones at desks; denying access to your own email and social media accounts; key logging software and an increase in workplace CCTV. So thanks a bunch Emma for making everyone's jobs that little bit more miserable.

antimatter

I applaud MN for its openness. However, on sites like this, I don't use my real name, date of birth, location or regular email address. I admit i'm pretty paranoid about things like that.

It'll take more than a few spiteful TAs to finish MN off.

Mumsnet is being incredibly open about this. I don't know of any other forum where moderation issues are allowed to be discussed in this way. I was until recently a moderator on an national site and this thread would have been removed as soon as admin had realised what was happening.

They have to be open about it. If they shut down this thread the conversation would just be taken elsewhere, and they'd be accused of a cover-up.

BTW, I see that emma healey calls herself Femmanist 🤣

Just to say, yes this is disturbing but as Mumsnet is standing up to bullies to let women speak I'm not going to hold a grudge.

Some of the people crowing about this should be causing red flags with their employers and affiliates. Anyone who employs or associates with a person who publicly supports misusing data in this way, esp to intentionally target a large group of women, is a dangerous liability.

The use of the term 'whistleblower' as though she's a latter day Karen Silkwood, rather than just a common or garden idiot.

I keep saying i need a break from mumsnet, get my life back

But I'm not being bullied off the site

Im not 12

I do feel very sorry for mummy

Most of us on here support trans rights

But she has been an incredibly strong supporter to the extent of debating vigorously even when other posters are disagreeing with certain points. Its dreadfully unfair that her words have been twisted

if she is reading

I agree rufus from me too mummybear

I just read that Lisa Muggeridge twitter thread. It is spot on.

Do everything by the letter MN. No shortcuts or excuses for this former intern. This is not whistleblowing. This is not someone just making a mistake.

( Dear Lib Dems, sort out your LGBT twitter feed, it reads like a copy of the Sun)

If Ms Healey is reading this my first piece of advice would be to close your LinkedIn account. Took 3 seconds of googling.

Is it just me who thinks we have a major problem with our education system here? Ive been reading the various posts taken from Mumsnet boards and used by TRAs as 'Gotcha Transphobe!' type moments in various settings over the last few days and have been struck by the fact that often the posters of the screengrabs etc have very little evidence that they had either read or comprehended what had been posted. Including the ones taken by EH: so keen to expose ideological impurity that they dont even seem to read what was posted eg the 'pro Section 28' example

Now tonight, I find that 'whistleblowing' apparently means 'posting screenshots of personal opinion from publically available message boards' and doxxing means 'people noticing I have posted sensitive data under my named, identified twitter account which is linked to other social and professional media

I presume that the uncertainty around concepts like male and female has spread and we can self define any words or concepts we want?

Where she has Mumsnet listed as her present job!