Freedom of Information requests about SEEN and Mumsnet

[carpety]

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/laura_brown_4

Dozens of requests to various public sector bodies asking about SEEN Networks and MN posts made by employees.

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1hobn9b/seen_network/

"There's been discussion here previously of the Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN). I've been using Freedom of Information requests to investigate this group's activities, particularly in the Civil Service (where they seem to have originated), and thought people might be interested in what I've learned."

Seems that this requestor is on a mission to unmask heretics.

Everyone should change their name to LauraBrown123, LauraBrown234 etc.

Charlie Brown, more like.

Actually I've just realised that that Reddit thread is by Mrs Brown and her boys.

@YesterdaysFuture
My name rotated around
Talkinpeece
TaIkinpeace
Talkinpe@ce
Talkenpeace
and many similar variants

They can FOI me, I don't care, I'm close to retirement and I'm a nobody, so I'll take the hit for the team. 😂

Mrs Browns boys maybe…..

LB might wish to reflect upon Mr Justice Julian Knowles' words: “In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society.”

I should think that most of us hope to keep it that way. It is essential that ALBs and other services are not driven by advocates of any ideology into eroding freedom of expression.

Any posters who are concerned about their usernames being included in the FOI can ask mumsnet to change that name for posts or withdraw all posts under that name.

Oh, that made me actually lol. 😁

Indeed. And what is the mechanism for holding those abusing FOI requests for these purposes? Would it be the ICO that should be investigating the malicious requestor? What are the potential consequences for them? The people want to know!

For once it seems I was ahead of the game when I chose this name earlier this year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

I do love the whole victim 'They are gossiping about me', 'The TERFs are out to get me'.

It's a way for people to put themselves at the centre of the story, to be sure.

Exactly @AlisonDonut

It was more that this ‘LauraBrownShe/Her’ is busy trying to identify civil servants in the SEEN network / posting on MN, then making snarky comments on Reddit about Dunning Kruger, whilst all the time being totally identifiable themselves.

It really isn’t a very smart thing to do.

It's not, and I suspect the person may be vulnerable. However it remains possible that someone has maliciously pretended to be this person to make them look bad.

That’s true, someone might have maliciously pretended to be them on here. But someone would have had to replicate it across several other platforms too.

According to whatdotheyknow, the original FOI requester has shared some of the FOI responses on bluesky, whilst a different account name on whatdotheyknow has shared many of the FOI responses on Reddit. No way of knowing if the requester has more than one account in whatdotheyknow, or if the second account is just one of their associates on Reddit, but the fact that sharing the responses on Reddit has triggered requests to Defra from other Reddit users hasn’t helped the requester’s argument that it’s incorrect of Defra to view them as vexatious.

I hadn’t seen their request to HMRC listing mumsnet user names at the point when I read Defra’s “we’ve decided you’re vexatious” response. But that doxxing-adjacent request to HMRC will be helpful evidence for Defra to present to the ICO to justify their view of the requester as vexatious.

or if the second account is just one of their associates on Reddit

They seem to think it's not a fan of theirs.

Is that so? I can’t face looking at Reddit, so I’ve only seen the whatdotheyknow posts.

Looks like Defra might have handed her her arse on What Do They Know.

With bells on and sugar icing.
They have also made it clear they regard the topic as closed no matter what name people apply under.
Glorious
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/intranet_posts_on_gender_and_tra/response/2877509/attach/html/3/IR2024%2024384%20Response.pdf.html

Wow, absolute mic drop. Well done whoever wrote that!

I felt a Vic and Bob handbag cluch at the end of that response. Wonderful. Well done responder.

Glorious! Well done to DEFRA in this one instance. (Now clean up the rivers.)