IMPORTANT (?): Archive Of Our Own Issues

[grayestofghosts]

There was a thread recently by the admin here on twitter about issues going on at AO3. From what I understand -- and I may be confused, here -- is that there were bad actors who were using AO3 as a service and sending CSEM to people with the intention of swatting those they sent the CSEM to. AO3 of course disabled the accounts but apparently there's an issue on AO3 where when they disable accounts they do not automatically hide that account's contents, but moderators have to go through the contents manually for some reason and this may have fucked up their legal liability. Because of this, if you have anything you have posted on AO3 or have any well-loved bookmarks on AO3, I would recommend downloading them for yourself on your local machine/drives. The great thing about AO3 is that it will generate epubs and other formats for you to keep on your own devices, at least, but I understand that's probably a LOT of bookmarks for some people...

I do not know all the details but the twitter thread is here. It looks like it has had a lot of updates since I last checked and I don't have time right now to go through all the addendums but the point is -- AO3's code and policies may not have been able to meet its US legal obligations to remove illegal material in a timely manner and that could be a legal issue, so back up your work and favorites in case anything happens to the site.

At this point on the internet if you see something you like you like it's hard to know if it will be on there for much longer so just take a copy anyway. You never know when your personal archive will be necessary.

Comments

[soc_puppet]

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.

[grayestofghosts]

I’ll look at the link but from just that description it does sound like a lot. What a mess.

[soc_puppet]

It is just... so much of a mess. Like, I knew from experience that big volunteer organizations could have internal problems, but this is just. A hot raging garbage fire.

Squidgeworld(?) has been suggested as an alternative to AO3, since I think it's running AO3's code, but I haven't checked it out myself yet. In the meantime, I'm just grateful that I've been mirroring all of my fics on/from Dreamwidth. I'll probably see about saving my AO3 comments, though.

[grayestofghosts]

I only really have one (err, one and a half, probably) fics on AO3 right now... maybe I should repost them here? :p

I would really like a download of my comments, yeah. I will need to figure out how to do that.