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.

The account has now been deleted.

She’s sorry she got caught out, not that she did it. There’s a big difference.

If you're worried about privacy and having your IP address linked to your location then use a VPN (this is having your connection routed through another IP address either in the UK or overseas so that sites you visit see that IP rather than your actual IP address).

Worth doing to give you an extra level of anonymity, especially if involved in contentious discussions.

Good advice.

And ultimately what is happening is a few extremely vocal agitators are holding many reasonable voices hostage, which is madness, and how they're operating so successfully. They are organised, determined, and vitriolic. As individuals we feel vulnerable.

Turn it round.

The original EH twitter account seems fully deleted now?

There's a cooling off period when you delete your Twitter account. So she is probably just offline temporarily with the intention of reviving her account in a fortnight's time.

She could have easily made her point about her views on moderation at MN known - I guess the screenshots prove she worked inside MN to back up her opinion as being on the inside.

The linkedin has gone awol too

@JustineMumsnet

A basic DP principle is to ensure that personal and personal sensitive data is not processed or displayed other than where necessary and proportionate.

Why is the IP address displayed on every screen view of postings for admins? Yes, it might sometimes be useful. But every time? When EH took those screengrabs, what was the necessary and proportionate reason for that information to be on her screen at all?

And assuming that her apology is genuine (I don't, but that's by the by), why was it that she didn't know that some of the data on the screengrabs was personal? Had she been properly trained, she would have realised.

It sounds like personal data is displayed on screens where it is not necessary, to staff who have not been trained.

Thank you for the edit MNHQ. I'm regretting that last glass of wine. is such a muppet

To conclude this is some sort of "oops, sorry it was an accident" action is I fear being extremely naive on MNHQ's part.

If this person had worked for me they would be having the book thrown at them.

I'm finding it difficult to understand Justine's sympathetic attitude towards somebody who deliberately stole data

I can completely understand sympathy towards an individual. However, it is possible to be sympathetic and objective.

Either the action was malicious and deliberate, or the management of the individual was incompetent. This isn't just about the feminist boards. People share all sorts of private information on MN. How could somebody work for MN for 6 months and not have more of a clue about data handling and privacy?

The linkedin has gone awol too

I’m sure many people have a comprehensive set of screenshots of it by now.

Training won't make any difference to the behaviour of an infiltrator.

It sounds like personal data is displayed on screens where it is not necessary, to staff who have not been trained.

Agree.

What an awful mess. She knew exactly what she was doing, it really must be reported through the correct channels HQ!

The threadreader has gone too, which is good, because the IP's were still showing on that as of about an hour ago. And so helpful that in the meantime the Lib Dem LGBT page RTed the data breach to their 5.5k followers.

IMO it is fair enough for @JustineMumsnet to accept Emma's apology for the reputational damage Emma caused MN with those screenshots. But the posters who had their IP's publically revealed are due an apology too, and may think differently about taking no action? I would like to think that if they have further concerns or want to report the data breach that MN will support them in doing so?

Thanks for responding Justine.
I'm with other posters in not being satisfied yet.
I have some questions that I think would be useful to answer when you and the team consider this further tomorrow.

1. Do you have policies in place prohibiting employees from screengrabbing/ copying sensitive user data?
2. Do you have policies in place prohibiting employees from taking sensitive user data outside of MNHQ computers into their personal domain? What are the consequences for employees who commit these breaches?
3. Do you accept that the handful of screen grabs EH posted online may represent only a tiny sample of data she harvested in this way?
4. Did EH have access to user email addresses?
5. Did EH have access to private MN messages?
6. Did EH have access to first name/lastname/address/ postcode data?
7. Did EH have access to all namechange usernames per account?
8. What vulnerabilities have the MN risk assessment team identified that contributed to this breach, and what steps can you put in place to prevent a repeat?
9. When you spoke to Emma, what reason did she give for screengrabbing and using the information the way she did?

Other posters may have more questions.

In the week that you stood up and said how you wouldn't be bullied by transactivists into stopping the debate, it looks dreadful to find a transactivist has been at the heart of MNHQ and had access to such sensitive data of women she considers scum, and shown she is prepared to publish the fact that she had this access.
It also isn't reassuring that she has friends still with admin authority at MNHQ.

I know you must want this to be contained and minimised, but I honestly think the message you should be sending is one of zero tolerance for this attitude from anyone handling the data of women. Many of us have posted on MN for a decade, and a determined activist with admin privileges could glean a horrifying amount of anonymous personal data and put it together for anyone they held a grudge against.

Please consider the strength of the message you send about who handles our personal information and what will happen if they abuse that privilege.

Again, I don't need admins to agree with my views. But they must have the minimum access possible to my data, and they must have an ironclad commitment to confidentiality, regardless of how they feel about my posts.

Her instagram and youtube are also wide open though which is probably not good.

EH needs to have a good look at her internet security on the whole. I'm cautious about what I say here in case it is misconstrued as malicious; I post this with her interests at heart. The amount of stuff relating to her and her personal life is extremely easy to find. Stuff that I would be concerned about being that openly available and easy to find. She really does need to consider a professional and a private social media strategy. Especially if she intends to take an activists path in life.

I am in the habit of looking up background of people who make a lot of political noise if its controversial and about a subject I'm interested in. Its a way of trying to find out their motives and understand what they are saying better. And indeed to hold someone to account if necessary. (Journalistic training is hard to shake). She needs to be more aware of what she is so openly sharing and to start seeing a difference between personal and professional as concepts which can work against your best interests.

I am thinking it's now appropriate for me to deregister.

I could write an essay about this but ultimately this is a really clearcut issue for me. If I had been one of the people whose IP's were bring spread all over Twitter I cannot begin to tell you the anxiety and fear this would be causing me over the next few days and weeks, even with everything Justine has posted. A clear message that data breeches will not be tolerated is not being sent. That tells me just how much my safety is valued as a user.

You are all incredible women. Thank you for all the intelligent and measured debate. I'm a different person for having chatted to you all. MN literally got me out of an abusive relationship. It's enriched my rather hard life in a lot of ways.

The problem is that 20 somethings are now the first generation that have grown up with the internet and social media. I worry that they don't see the difference between a personal and a professional social media presence like we do. She has made herself unemployable by any even slightly conservative organisation. No bank would touch her now with a documented history of data theft.

Out of interest, are there instructions anywhere for users about how to deregister/delete an account?

Over on reddit they are posting a comprehensive history of EH's public record social media presences on all platforms, mainly as a representative of Leeds University i.e on their FB site and youtube channel. It's really, really difficult to see how MN could not have known that she was an activist with pretty extreme views. I hope she isn't a relative of any full time staff member. If she is, I feel very sorry for them as she has abused their trust too.

I also despair at the state universities are in with all this these days.

EH needs to have a good look at her internet security on the whole. I'm cautious about what I say here in case it is misconstrued as malicious; I post this with her interests at heart. The amount of stuff relating to her and her personal life is extremely easy to find. Stuff that I would be concerned about being that openly available and easy to find. She really does need to consider a professional and a private social media strategy.
Especially if she intends to take an activists path in life.

Well she was carving a career path in Comms & Campaigns, but she might have wounded herself in that regard.

It’s a bit baffling that someone claiming to have SM and Comms skills, who also holds and broadcasts extremist views, is so crap at the internet, anyway, really.

TBH, I’m pleased that anyone who might be affected has been able to get a real name and enough details to pass to their solicitor, if it becomes necessary.