Hi everyone. I set up the MumsnetTransphobia twitter accounts yesterday. Only going to post this once then leave so won't be reading replies as I don't want to create a big argument - this is not about me. But wanted to clear a few things up for those of you who are interested as there seem to be a fair few misconceptions about the aims of the account. Clearly there's no way of proving that, you'll just have to take my word for it. But here are some answers to some of the questions on this thread.
(1) The MumsnetTransphobia account (both of them) had nothing at all to do with Shon Faye. We got in contact with her to know it was up in case she wanted to send onto us any posts that were attacking her personally. We did the same with lots of people, many of whom sent us posts that they believed to be transphobic, either directed at them or others.
(2) As very clearly stated on the Twitter page, there were two aims of the account. Firstly, to highlight that transphobia does exist on Mumsnet. I had personally had a number of arguments over the weekend with people denying that transphobia was happening on Mumsnet at all. This does not mean that I think every post discussing trans issues is transphobic. But some posts are, and it felt important to shine a light on these and show that it is happening and isn't ok. Secondly, Mumsnet has a team of moderators who are trying very hard to wade through enormous numbers of posts every day to identify the minority that cross the line into hate speech, and it seemed that having one place to pool these would make their lives easier.
(3) This has absolutely nothing to do with shutting down debate. It's to do with making Mumsnet a place where real debate can happen, without people having to be afraid of being personally attacked if they get involved. Free speech is not hate speech.
(4) Mumsnet was not 'targeted' by the feed. It would be fantastic if someone could set up similar ways of reporting hate speech for all the sites mentioned (Reddit, Pistonheads etc.). I don't know much about those sites beyond their reputations, but I admit I do expect that sort of grim stuff from them, and hold the Mumsnet community to a higher standard. Maybe that's a bad double standard to have? I don't know. But Mumsnet is my people - it's a place of extraordinary support for women, for debate and comfort and humour and support. I joined three years ago while TTC, and it's helped me through miscarriage and pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding and it feels like my home. Over the last few months I've felt increasingly uncomfortable with the level of hate speech and bullying that now feels endemic across the site. I don't want bigotry to force out the voices of those who feel unable to join discussions for fear of being personally targeted.
(5) I did, idiotically, lock myself out of the original Twitter account. This was partly because I had not linked it to either my mobile or email, to try to keep it as anonymous (/safe) as possible. My best guess is that I mistyped the original password - I was breastfeeding at the time and therefore not totally concentrating. I considered packing it in at that point, but so many people had got in touch to say they appreciated the ability to report posts that it felt worth giving it another go.
(6) Within the first hour or so more messages came in than I was able to deal with. A few other people on Twitter, who I did not know before, offered to help out. Late last night, I started receiving aggressive and/or threatening messages. One of these referred to me as a 'misogynist d*ckhead', which is so ridiculously wide of the mark. My entire career has focused on supporting vulnerable women and children. I am a feminist to my very bones. Creating and promoting safe spaces for women, which includes protections from hate speech, is a fundamental part of that.
(7) So, I took a break overnight. This afternoon one of the collaborators on the feed received personal threatening messages from someone who had - despite her best efforts - discovered who she was. She was worried enough for her safety and mine that she closed down the feed. Having experienced just a little of her world for 24 hours, I don't blame her.
Again, you'll just have to take my word for all this, and I'm sure many of you won't. But there we have it.