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.

I'm not transphobic and I'm sick of people saying I am.

Were any of the MN posts she chose to post on twitter transphobic? I think not

Talking about her personal life or revealing her own ip address would be 'going low' as you put it.

Finding out what she had access to at Mumsnet and what she has access to at her new job is completely relevant and actually pretty important to know isn't it?

If she was still at Uni they would likely take a very dim view of what she has done here. Her current and future employers would also have a professional interest as doing this makes her a serious liability in some roles.

Hi @ItsAllGoingToBeFine yes it’s me. Thank you for the compliment if you dm me your twitter handle on here i’ll follow you.

As you were.

I don't know Rosen but I'm sure MN will be taking action.

Fuck me. I would certainly expect Mumsnet to be taking action on this.

Very worrying.

Btw be circumspect about googling the name - my guess is that there may be quite a few people out there with the same name, and it would be horrible for the wrong EH to be caught up in accusations of data theft because they showed up on someone's Google search.

My workplace requires me to be politically neutral and hence I value having an anonymous space. Nothing to do with "would you say this in RL?" (which is a test I set myself in any case), everything to do with keeping my personal and political life separate from my professional life.

Though I'm coming round to the position that the only way to go may be "publish and be damned" and pre-empt the would be doxxers by posting something gender critical under my own name in say, the comments section of the Times.

Wow, I’m guessing she won’t be asking MN for a reference!

Emma's views were publicly available before she was hired:

thetab.com/uk/leeds/2017/01/30/leeds-university-union-launch-first-ever-lgbtq-club-night-28998

"“The LGBTQ+ scene, especially in cities like Leeds, tends to focus on gay men neglecting LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people who may often feel alienated and isolated in this environment. I wanted to create a club night that celebrated and centred all the queer women and non-binary people in the University and the wider city."

thetab.com/uk/leeds/2016/04/07/insiders-perspective-nus-womens-conference-24102

"You might have your own concerns about your gender or sexuality, but calling an incredible woman a man in a dress does nothing to assure that. Anna Lee is an inspiration and I think she knows her gender identity far better than you do."

Yes, that Anna Lee www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2574607-And-so-it-begins-Transwoman-is-running-for-womens-officer-of-NUS?messages=100&pg=1

She's in favour of 'no-platforming'

thetab.com/uk/leeds/2016/02/02/defence-no-platforming-21808

"You do have the right to free speech. But why should that also be the right to sexist, racist or transphobic?"

thetab.com/uk/leeds/2016/02/25/trigger-warnings-great-stop-complaining-23210

She's mysteriously mealy mouthed in covering this 'drag queen' who dressed up as Hitler.

thetab.com/uk/leeds/2015/11/24/drag-queen-dresses-hitler-mission2-20406

And of course the obligatory Trans Day of Remembrance story to commemorate the (zero in most years in the UK) victims of transphobic murder thetab.com/uk/leeds/2015/11/21/union-holds-transgender-day-remembrance-vigil-20320

So, um, yeah.

Might be worth vetting the members of the 'snowflake generation' a little better. On the one hand lots of experienced women in the readership, on the other the pool of interns look like this www.vice.com/en_us/article/zn8b35/what-its-like-to-work-at-mumsnet-in-your-20s

I don't really have an issue with people here linking to stuff about her that is readily available about her online. You can bet your bottom dollar she is watching this thread and refreshing it every 10 seconds whilst crapping herself about this and if the fact that people on the thread use the intel she's put out there about herself to demonstrate to her exactly how easy it is for people to find out all about you online then maybe she will get an inkling of just exactly what she has done.

Why doesn't this thread have the link to say MNHQ have commented on it?

Very interested to hear further updates on this.

Hi everyone.
Emma was an intern in the press office for 6 months until March and for a good portion of that time she did have access to the information in our user accounts pages. This is because part of her role involved occasionally contacting Mumsnetters to pass on media requests etc. In February we streamlined the number of people with access to those accounts beyond the community team hers (and others) access was removed.

Her contract expressly forbids the passing on of any third-party data and clearly, she's in breach of contract so we'll be contacting her as a matter of urgency.

Given what she's said on Twitter about this being a mistake and that she's now deleted her Twitter account, plus what we know about her from her time at MNHQ, we believe further breaches are unlikely.

We're really sorry for any anxiety caused and will of course be in touch with the three posters that we can see who are directly affected.

This is really worrying and I imagine the last thing MNHQ needed this week.

The fact that this individual had screenshot stuff and taken it with her suggests there was always an intention to do something with it. Or it has already been used elsewhere / forwarded to other people. This isn't a spur of the moment thing.

I am also concerned about the "friends" at HQ and what information might still be being shared.

And no, I havent said anything illegal either. I very rarely post and try to be measured when I do. But this is potentially a very serious breach with potential real world consequences.

Some of Emma's mates are tweeting the unrolled thread which still has the user names & ip addresses. I'm reporting them to twitter but the more reports they get the better. What a mess; what a stupid thing to do.

Well, yes it is publicly available information. She really did put herself out there on the internet didn't she?

I know I'm a bit of a raging nutter re privacy but it never ceases to amaze me how much stuff people will publish online about themselves.

Time to lock down your accounts Emma love.

It's a shame, she has a great CV. Pity she doesn't know how to think critically.

Really Justine? Surely, if she is of sound character as you suggest she wouldn't have taken those screen shots in the first place?

Dear Sandydrawsbadly,

I think you should change your name to Sandydrawswell

From

Thanksforthatamazingpost