The MNHQ Moderation Team: Thread 2

[BarrackerBarmer]

Follow on thread regarding the data breach situation:
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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've been very, very good.

I've never had a post deleted.

I've started threads and reminded everyone of talk guidelines.

That said...

Emma,

I doubt you will read this having retreated to your Twitter bubble.

On the off chance you do, I want to say this.

I feel very sad for you. I'm sad because I don't think you realise what you have done.

You may feel justified in your actions about "outing" people who disagree with self id.

However what you have failed to consider is the implications for many women posting on this site for whom anonymity is crucial to their survival.

How can they do that when there are people like you; prepared to "tweet" their information.

Maybe you didn't look at the relationships forum much.

As an intern maybe you didn't care about the issues of women trapped in abusive relationships.

Who knows?

Sure as hell you were not on the same page as women like Candy (RIP) who drove through the night to help a struggling fellow MNetter.

I'm damn sure you haven't contributed to this debate, nor invested as much time in it as members such as @Datun and @RedToothBrush.

I don't think you've even given a thought for how much @anyfucker has opened women's eyes to being in an abusive relationship, however acerbic her posting style.

The abuse of trust here is appalling. That's down to you Emma.

Yes you.

You can lock down admin rights but if someone wants to take screenshots then that's not on an employer.

That's why job contracts have disclosure clauses.

So well done Emma.

I hope you feel proud about what you "exposed".

There is a special circle in hell reserved for women who so casually and irrelevantly fuck other women over.

Signed,

Angry and disgusted,

Darth

Whoops, sorry. I have it open in a tab from earlier and didn't realise it had been deleted.

You are thankfully not on it, no.

JustOneMan are you the husband who was posting on your wife's account earlier? No shade, by the way.

It's just, from a legal and professional point of view, you should know that at this point MN can't really say anything more than they have. Right?

Apologies to you and Reds husband JOM. As I said no shade intended it's just nice to know who you are talking too. :o

Bumble, I'm sure the poor woman will be up to her ears in legal advice in a few hours thanks to TRA's causing trouble yet again.

Let's give her and everyone else at HQ a chance, eh?

Cross post as I didn't raise there was Thread 2:

It's very clear that young woman has been weaponised by the "erase-women" ideology, using trans activism(sic) as a cover. Incidents like this are designed to divide the opposition in order to conquer them. It's part of the "erase women" fightback - of that I have no doubt. Don't let them succeed. This is a very stupid, vulnerable young woman (though she won't see that yet) who has been subjected to undue influence. Just like the exiled Scientologists tell, when under the influence of the cult, they would threaten and assault others. Ultimately it's the cult leader(s) who are responsible, not their lackeys. I'm not diminishing her part - she will pay a high price for that, no doubt. But all is not as it seems on the surface. There are other influences at play behind the scene - the puppet-masters.

Mantra: Stay united as part of the resistance. Stay calm.

What "erase-women" want now, in the aftermath of the shock, is for confusion on our part and dissemblance. Then they can move in and gain more territory - they want a clampdown. Don't give them that. Stay united with MN. Yes it's serious but rely on the fact that MN is sorting it.

Irrespective, I recommend only using an anonymous email address online anywhere - so play smart and change yours if necessary plus change your passwords. As the recent FB debacle has shown - having any personal data online is not sensible in any form as there are no safeguards anywhere that are "safe". No one wants to tell you this as it destabilises a brand and a business - any brand and any business.

So yes reassurances are needed nevertheless do take whatever action you need to stay safe online yourself - don't rely on any corporate to do that for you. It's not sensible. Like the justice system, it doesn't provide the cover that is needed, despite any assurances.

So am staying calm and hopefully united on here to see this latest storm out. It will pass...

I think we all need to stay away from the petulant 'DO AS I SAY OR ELSE' posting style that the MRA/TRA's favor so much and actually listen.

At least wait for a more informed update before holding your posting history for ransom. (??!!)

My tuppence:

In her responses on the other thread, Justine has not said that the matter ends here. She has said that they are looking into it. She has said that Emma apologised, but she did not state that there would be no further action against her. Those whose data has been compromised may choose to bring action against Emma themselves. Her apology to MN is a separate issue.

Personally, I hope that people do not leave MN over this. It smacks of giving into the terrorists. My username and password were compromised the last time. I set up a new account under a new e-mail address as a precaution.

I expect Justine will take legal advice today and I hope she also gets expert tech advice to tighten up security. I would also advice looking into the activist backgrounds of any potential future interns.

I understand how shocking stuff like this is - deliberate hacking and identity theft is analogous to cyber-rape - and then discovering how little of cyberspace is held to account or policed is shock on another level. So I feel for all those who are having a normal reaction at being targeted and got at - sending a virtual heartfelt hug out there to you ({})

There's naturally a lot of FUD around.

It doesn't need adding to.

MN is probably no better or no worse than most corporates re data and IT security - working to comply to minimum required standard. Like all corporates out there.

And if you think any corporate really cares about customers and their data, think again - there's a conflict of interest between corporates who want to use that data as benefits them and customers need for privacy and security.

Head down under where's there's a Royal Commission into The Banks. Aussie banks have global reputation for "in safe hands". Then you see what's really going on with fraud being perpetrated on a massive scale by rogue employees like this young woman. And that's just what they know about.

I am extremely careful re any online data, even with banks. So I don't have all my eggs in one basket so to speak…

Sharing experience to help - it's not my intention to preach!!

It comes down to this - MN have a duty of care to their business shareholders to maintain trust in the brand. They also have a duty of care to customers as well as comply with legislation. So the latter works hand in hand with the former - but when push comes to shove, the former takes precedence.

MN won't be expressing panic or concern as that would not be helpful to their business. Their job is to reassure.

Irrespective, I have learnt I need to reassure myself by ensuring I have the personal safeguards in place and am not relying on corporates as my sole safeguards - I know what's best for me. So if anything , this is an opportunity to review one's online safety, after the dust has settled..

There's a lot of new OPs posting fear uncertainly and doubt and inflaming the discussion btw

Not my intent to minimise who's happened but context it - this could be:

1. a well thought out guerrilla attack using a trained dupe to get inside the defences - someone thought about this. Someone thought about the vulnerabilities of MN and what action would rattle them, their brand, their advertisers and their customers.

1. Or could be a complete rogue employee taking advantage for her own narcissistic ends.

MN is no different to most corporates I imagine - data protection is a learning curve as is complying with the new legislation - some one has to be a test case and looks like MN is it.

It certainly adds grise to the mill to MN being unfairly targeted by erase women extremists using trans as a cover, so an ideal vehicle to raise the visibility of our concerns.

I can't believe the clear lack of procedure in place to stop this from ever happening and the reluctance in following basic reporting protocol immediately to ICO on this

I work for a commercial (non-UK) website - as an admin, I can see a lot of our customer's data - addresses etc. - stuff that I don't necessarily need to be able to do my job, but that no-one has thought to hide.

Other information, I couldn't access even if I wanted to - credit card details etc. aren't stored, we just have a one way encrypted token which allows us to refer to them, passwords are also one-way encrypted. There's no reason that most information couldn't be encrypted (although not one-way - you're going to need to be able to decrypt an email address at some point) - although, even then, whilst you're guarding against a normal employee, the chances are that IT can do what they like.

In my experience, these things only get locked down once a company is forced to do it, because the level of effort first to do it, and then for employees to use a system locked down that way, is high.