If you're interested at all in learning the details, synonymous has been collecting ...pretty much everything relevant to the whole mess, and has been for a few weeks. There's. A lot.
I'll try to sum up
- AO3 volunteers (specifically Policy & Abuse Committee, what they call their Trust & Safety team) were subject to a CSAM attack in late 2021 - Azarias, a PAC volunteer who ended up dealing with a lot of CSAM reports for various reasons, volunteered to be one of two people who looked into hiring a diversity consultant for AO3/OTW - Azarias learned that she would have to either use her legal name as a PAC volunteer or use her fandom handle to reach out to potential diversity consultants, as per OTW policy; before stepping up to the plate, she had asked if it would be possible for her to have an exception to this policy for her own safety and/or for professionalism, wires got crossed, and she thought she had permission when she didn't; she quit the volunteer-to-find-a-diversity-consultant position - A much greater number of AO3 volunteers were subject to a second CSAM attack in early to mid-2022, very shortly after Azarias quit the find-a-diversity-consultant position - The OTW suspended Azarias' account on the suspicion that she was behind the CSAM attacks out of "revenge" for not getting an exception from the name policy; Azarias was not told why her account was suspended - The CSAM attacks stopped, presumably either because of other steps the OTW took or because the attacker got bored - A few months later, Azarias contacted the OTW to ask about getting her account reinstated; no one was allowed to contact her in the times since - Apparently, this is within days of the OTW talking about getting her account reinstated anyway - Azarias' account is reinstated, with everything deleted - Azarias quits being an AO3 volunteer entirely out of all the bullshit she's endured
- May, 2023; endotwracism starts a campaign to get the OTW to follow through on their promise of 2020 to hire a diversity consultant, etc - AO3 PAC volunteers start coming out of the woodwork on FFA to talk about how they do their jobs, and the Azarias mess comes to light - People are understandably pissed off, and the OTW has to make an official statement - The OTW Board makes a statement that seems pretty neutral, if bullshit - OTW Legal makes a statement that only barely doesn't outright accuse Azarias of being the CSAM attacker - Denise advises all OTW volunteers to walk, because if this is the sort of thing that the legal team is comfortable with, volunteering is not safe - The OTW finally shares a public update with their progress (or lack thereof) on hiring a diversity consultant and other steps towards making AO3 more friendly to fans of color, which isn't much - Denise makes a Twitter thread (prior to this one) about how AO3/OTW has failed its volunteers and its users in Trust & Safety/PAC, mirrors it on Dreamwidth - The OTW May newsletter is released - The OTW responds to Denise's Twitter thread - Denise's response to their response, which you have linked
I may have gotten a few things mixed up or missed some stuff. As I said, it's A Lot. If you have the patience and/or the stomach, it's worth reading everything on synonymous, but yeah. A lot.
no subject
I'll try to sum up
- AO3 volunteers (specifically Policy & Abuse Committee, what they call their Trust & Safety team) were subject to a CSAM attack in late 2021
- Azarias, a PAC volunteer who ended up dealing with a lot of CSAM reports for various reasons, volunteered to be one of two people who looked into hiring a diversity consultant for AO3/OTW
- Azarias learned that she would have to either use her legal name as a PAC volunteer or use her fandom handle to reach out to potential diversity consultants, as per OTW policy; before stepping up to the plate, she had asked if it would be possible for her to have an exception to this policy for her own safety and/or for professionalism, wires got crossed, and she thought she had permission when she didn't; she quit the volunteer-to-find-a-diversity-consultant position
- A much greater number of AO3 volunteers were subject to a second CSAM attack in early to mid-2022, very shortly after Azarias quit the find-a-diversity-consultant position
- The OTW suspended Azarias' account on the suspicion that she was behind the CSAM attacks out of "revenge" for not getting an exception from the name policy; Azarias was not told why her account was suspended
- The CSAM attacks stopped, presumably either because of other steps the OTW took or because the attacker got bored
- A few months later, Azarias contacted the OTW to ask about getting her account reinstated; no one was allowed to contact her in the times since
- Apparently, this is within days of the OTW talking about getting her account reinstated anyway
- Azarias' account is reinstated, with everything deleted
- Azarias quits being an AO3 volunteer entirely out of all the bullshit she's endured
- May, 2023;
- AO3 PAC volunteers start coming out of the woodwork on FFA to talk about how they do their jobs, and the Azarias mess comes to light
- People are understandably pissed off, and the OTW has to make an official statement
- The OTW Board makes a statement that seems pretty neutral, if bullshit
- OTW Legal makes a statement that only barely doesn't outright accuse Azarias of being the CSAM attacker
- Denise advises all OTW volunteers to walk, because if this is the sort of thing that the legal team is comfortable with, volunteering is not safe
- The OTW finally shares a public update with their progress (or lack thereof) on hiring a diversity consultant and other steps towards making AO3 more friendly to fans of color, which isn't much
- Denise makes a Twitter thread (prior to this one) about how AO3/OTW has failed its volunteers and its users in Trust & Safety/PAC, mirrors it on Dreamwidth
- The OTW May newsletter is released
- The OTW responds to Denise's Twitter thread
- Denise's response to their response, which you have linked
I may have gotten a few things mixed up or missed some stuff. As I said, it's A Lot. If you have the patience and/or the stomach, it's worth reading everything on synonymous, but yeah. A lot.