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.

@JustineMumsnet

I don't think 'accidental' is the correct term.

When someone executes a deliberate act with the intent of causing harm, it's not described as an accident if they cause more harm than they intended.

And yes, this was a data security breach and needs to be reported. It would look much better if MNHQ did that themselves rather than users having to do it for them.

@JustineMumsnet

The bigger issue is really the data we don’t know that she took. I seriously doubt it was only three screen shots that showed those ip addresses.

Re reporting to the ico, the horse is out of the gate, someone already mentioned on this thread that they spoke with the ico and screenshots were being provided.

Additionally the identifying data that Emma published is still readily available on twitter. The three users are still at risk due to this data breach. EH’s apologies don’t mean anything.

Cross posted with a gazillion others but as an aside @CircleSquareCircleSquare I've never heard that expression but love it - thank you CSCS grandma!

@Truscum

I think she is sorry about posting IP addresses - and that was accidental.

Is she sorry about taking screenshots containing users private data while working?

Because that wasn’t accidental was it?

No I don't think taking screenshots was accidental for sure, but I think the fact that those screenshots had admin access (and therefore an ip address at the bottom of them) was entirely accidental tbh. I can't "prove" this of course but I'm 100% certain of it.

@Justine I can only imagine what it's been like at MNHQ. I don't doubt Emma made a monumentally stupid mistake and didn't realise her actions had broken the law but I am not sure how you can trust that she didn't copy more private data and that she hasn't shared it. Of course she will claim she hasn't.

I think in this scenario you have to go with reporting her actions to maintain trust between yourself and your users. You have so many vulnerable users here. Your duty is first and foremost to them. Gender critical feminists are trusting you with their anonymity and risking their safety, at the very worst, by posting here. You need to send a loud message that data breeches will not be minimised.

Wow. Just wow.

How stupid is this girl?

Awesome post girlscout72 at 17:00

I may have missed this so apologies if so, but have the users whose information was leaked been contacted and advised as to what Mumsnet is planning to do about their information being leaked?

Scary but thanks justine for being on it now and answering questions

I do think a public retraction/apology would be a good step.

@Bumblefuddle

But you should have had cut and paste disabled to be DPA never mind GDPR compliant. Principle 7.

Bumble tbh, as you probably can imagine, that's news to me and it's not something that our working group who've been looking at GDPR for the last 4 months have raised - but thank you for raising it and I will investigate tomorrow.

What an absolute fucking mess.

I appreciate that she's probably someone you know in real life (clearly a young and naive person, who has some vulnerabilities too), so you have a different perspective on her from us strangers on the internet - but I really don't think it was accidental that she took those screenshots as an admin @JustineMumsnet?

@JustineMumsnet Could you please look at this, Justine? Look your own IP address up. Because mine was spot on right down to the postcode and some will even go as far as giving a street name. Link that to an Email or Facebook...

www.ip-tracker.org/

I don't think that saying IP addresses aren't sensitive data is entirely accurate. Perhaps they aren't alone but they are the key to a lot more sensitive data. Ip addresses aren't the only data she has had access to either, are they? Just the only data she mistakenly published. I found that tracker in a two minute search. That's just a free one.

I honestly couldn't give a rat's about being doxxed. In all honestly it would please me greatly. I don't post much on any boards these days but have been posting about this shit on my own FB for a good few years now and Tweet under my own name.

And I irrespective of the current farrago I think it's time we started to stand up in our own names and be counted.

Fuck them, and fuck their threats. Be heard as women, as individuals, because the more we fear outing for holding perfectly reasonable views, the more those views are supposed to be suspect.

Also what's an OTW on the thread?

I think the fact that those screenshots had admin access (and therefore an ip address at the bottom of them) was entirely accidental

I presume that you'll be able to construct an argument as to why personal data has to be displayed on screens available to interns, without them actually realising it's personal data?

I don’t think it will be facilitating what TRAs see as transphobic debate that will do Mumsnet damage, it will be a data breach and accepting the perpetrator’s apology as final.

It doesn't matter if its accidental.

MN still have a breach for which they are responsible and Emma is responsible.

If you are accepting that it was accidental then you are making an admission that whatever training she was given wasn't sufficient.

The liability still remains though. I'd think carefully about how you reply here Justine.

In the end though it's quite hard to stop someone on the inside who's hellbent on stealing data (not that I think that's what happened here)

That's exactly what happened here.

I'm finding it difficult to understand Justine's sympathetic attitude towards somebody who deliberately stole data, and her expectation that we'll all feel the same way.

It's a police matter.

clearly a young and naive person, who has some vulnerabilities too), so you have a different perspective on her

She’s 24. Not a fresh graduate, even.

(Interestingly, her LinkedIn seems to be wide open. Is that usual?)

Hang on, I thought EH was a press officer intern who at some point had access to MNers' contact details and an ability to see "behind the scenes" of the website, not a member of the mod team?

Can we not have a go at modders please!