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The MNHQ Moderation team

17 replies

BarrackerBarmer · 18/04/2018 12:51

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 MNHQ Moderation team
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MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 18/04/2018 14:51

Hi all
We're looking into this as a matter of urgency as you can imagine - please bear with us briefly while we do so. Just to let you all know, though - all access to any Mumsnet admin functions were removed on the day that this person's internship ended - there's no possibility of further access. The screenshots have now be removed from that Twitter account which is something.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 18/04/2018 14:53

FloraFox we've deleted the screenshots from your post now.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 15:47

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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 16:02

@ScrambledSmegs

As far as I can see she hasn’t deleted her Twitter account. She’s merely protected her tweets.

Sorry you're right Scrambled - my mistake

MNHQ

sandymumsnet · 18/04/2018 16:55

@Thanksforthatamazingpost

Thanks for the clear explanation about the IP addresses RedToothBrush.

are you saying that the four users whose IP addresses were screenshotted should turn their routers off and on again?

Please could we check with you the number of usernames posted with IP addresses showing? We have three, we'd like to make sure we're not missing anyone. If anyone is aware, please could they mail us at [email protected]. Many thanks.

MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 18/04/2018 17:55

Hi everyone,
You might notice that we have made a few deletions on this thread, not because they have broken guidelines as such, but because they shared the details of Emma Healey's current employer, blog etc. We all understand the frustration, but it's not really our style so let's not do that.
Thanks for all the messages of support coming in, much appreciated. x

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 20:51

Hi all,
There are an awful lot of questions on this thread so I think it's best to address the substantive risks first. It's worth you knowing that Emma has apologised wholeheartedly to a member of our team for her actions and confirmed that the publishing of IPs was accidental and, though she did have access to user data for a time, I don't think there's any significant risk of a further breach.

Nonetheless we are naturally making it crystal clear that any data she might hold needs to be deleted immediately and any further breach would lead to legal action on our part.

We are not planning on reporting the IP leak to the ICO because as we understand it IP addresses do not count as personal data.

We have taken a number of steps to reduce staff access to user data during the last 6 months and to make sure we hold the minimum we need to run the business, in response to forthcoming gdpr legislation and we are very confident we will be compliant. However we will absolutely be reviewing our procedures to see what we can do better as a result of what's happened today - for instance we'll be removing ip addresses from admin views of Talk posts in the next few days.

I absolutely do not believe any current members of staff are "part of an inside job" to harvest data or cause any harm to users. I think Emma's tweets about how she was going to (to paraphrase) get mods to delete stuff on her behalf were poorly expressed and slight aggrandising.

We do have some members of our team who have occasionally expressed some concern that Mumsnet could be perceived to be sympathetic to people who are transphobic, which is a concern I think we can all share, while standing firmly behind our commitment to freedom to debate the issues. Tbh we welcome this feedback and are keen to make sure all the team here are able to raise their concerns about any aspect of working at Mumsnet.

I'm really sorry this happened and for any concern it's understandably caused but, in short, I really don't believe it's going to put any users or their data at risk.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 20:55

@Bumblefuddle

Justine. The issue with op addresses is that they aren’t personally identifiable of themselves but when combined with User Jake and posting history they could be.

If you haven’t reported to the ico that’s something you should revisit.

I'll take further advice tomorrow Bumble - it's not the advice we've been given to date (but thanks)

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 20:56

[quote Battleax]@MNHQ as a side thought, maybe it’s worth looking at a policy favouring older career changers for internships?[/quote]

We are actively looking at returnships as it happens but I don't think we should just write off the younguns - we've had some amazing ones and equally had the odd older intern who's not worked out so well...

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 20:59

@Bumblefuddle

We do have some members of our team who have occasionally expressed some concern that Mumsnet is not perceived to be sympathetic to people who are transphobic,

Is that what you meant Justine?

hmm - you're right that's a bit ambiguous isn't it! Anyone mind if do a quick edit?

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:04

@MrsHathaway

Crossed with Justine. Not happy with that response. You can't rely on good will and good behaviour if you want to keep data safe. This breach might have been minor and isolated, but it reveals lazy practice which makes me edgy.

As said MrsH, we've already made quite a lot of changes to our procedures in the last little while as a result of gdpr so I do believe we're in a better place but we will be looking again at every aspect of what's happened here and making sure we learn from it. 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) and that's a risk for every organisation.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:10

@AssassinatedBeauty

The problem with the apology is that I doubt she really believes that what she did was wrong. She's sorry for having been caught out, she presumably still thinks MN is a hotbed of transphobia.

I think MNHQ is being very charitable towards her. I'd be livid that trust had been broken like this.

I think she is sorry about posting IP addresses - and that was accidental. But yes, I'm sure she thinks her stance on trans rights is absolutely correct and that MN is poorly moderated.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:11

@RedToothBrush

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) and that's a risk for every organisation.

Yes, but what you do when that does happen is also important. You can not just say, 'oh well she's sorry'. You enforce when something does happen.

I agree - hence our taking it very seriously as a breach of contract. I'm not suggesting we're not taking it seriously - I"m just saying that I don't think there's a huge risk of further publication of any data in this instance.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:15

@TripleRainbow

@ MNHQ as a side thought, maybe it’s worth looking at a policy favouring older career changers for internships?

Completely agree, and how about focusing on mums? Of the eight mums I know who have had children within the last two years six of them have been made redundant.

I do hope MN pay their interns, giving opportunity everyone and not just people in privileged positions.

Yes we pay the London living wage - amounts to an annual salary of around 20k and yes we are looking at "Mumturnships" (sorry, cringey word) with the option for flexibility.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:17

@greenlanes

This is so clearly a report to the ico about personal data breaches. Ip addresses uniquely identify a user.

Mumsnet: if you do not report this breach I will. It is that serious. If you do not understand the gdpr then you have more problems than I realised.

Hi Greenlanes - as said I'll take further advice on this tomorrow and will let you know where we get to. We're not trying to run away from any obligation here - just don't want to waste anyone's time.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:20

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 18/04/2018 21:24

@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.

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