synonymous

azarias

I was hoping this would be clarified in the meeting so I didn't have to talk about it, but here's the retraction of the accusations about me that got posted last night:

We write with two clarifications and an apology. First, the post on 30 May, 2023 that was attributed to Legal was written and edited by both Legal and Board, and should be understood as coming from both Legal and Board.

Second, it has come to our attention that some have interpreted that statement as an accusation against a particular (now-former) volunteer. It was not intended as such, and should not be interpreted as such. We apologize for any ambiguity about that. As said in the statement, we do not know who was behind the attacks, and we do not accuse anyone of having been behind them. The statement was intended to be and should be interpreted as a description of an investigative process that we undertook under the guidance and direction of our outside lawyers, which we described in that post in response to many specific inquiries we received about that process. That process did not yield any answers regarding who was behind the attacks.

We apologize for any misunderstanding, and particularly apologize to the affected former volunteer. We have also apologized directly to that former volunteer, both for the distress that volunteer experienced during the attacks and the org’s reaction to them, and for our subsequent communication regarding the subject.

We remain dedicated to the safety of our volunteers and the future of the AO3 and the OTW. Although we hope nothing like the attacks of May 2022 will happen again, we want our users and volunteers to know that, in collaboration with volunteers and chairs from across the organization, we have instituted and are continuing to develop and institute policies and processes to protect volunteers’ privacy, safety, security, and mental health in case of another emergency.

OTW Board and Legal Committee.

Here's the email exchange I had with Board etc in the past week that I guess this answered:

Thu, Jun 29, 11:33 PM
to board, legal, Abuse

Hi Azarias,

First, we want to apologize for the length of time it has taken us to send this message.

More to the point, we write to apologize for the events surrounding your volunteer account being suspended and reinstated last year, and the public discussion around that. Specifically, we apologize for our lack of communication with you during the events of last year, the isolation you experienced during that very stressful period, and the distress that you experienced from the situation. Although we were dealing with fast-moving complexities and doing what our outside lawyers recommended, we recognize that our communication approach caused you distress, and we apologize for that. We never meant to hurt you, and we know we did. We are sorry.

Though we hope nothing like this will happen again, we wanted you to know that we are putting in processes to make sure there are rules and procedures in place in case of another emergency.

We’d particularly like to schedule a live call to issue this apology directly. We hope that we can have this conversation via Zoom, so that you can hear our sincerity and we can avoid miscommunication, rather than proceeding in writing where our tone may be lost. Here is a WhenIsGood link: http://whenisgood.net/iiwdbea.

We’re inviting the current PAC chairs too, both because they suggested we reach out to you and also so that they know of our sincerity as well, and our dedication to protecting and helping PAC volunteers. We clearly all care about the OTW deeply, and we don’t want this situation to keep festering.

Best,

OTW Board of Directors and Legal

Fri, Jun 30, 3:10 PM
to betsyrosenblatt, board, legal, Abuse

Ms. Rosenblatt,

On 30 May 2023, director Natalia Gruber posted a statement from the Legal Committee implying that I was responsible for the May 2022 cyberattacks on OTW volunteers. These cyberattacks distributed child sexual abuse material to over 900 people in dozens of countries, constituting a truly staggering number of international felonies. The Legal Committee's statement further implied that I had gained unauthorized access to OTW's internal communications while suspended. There is no other plausible interpretation a reasonable person could take of the repeated language, "This is another coincidence we cannot explain."

This statement was posted in an OTW slack channel accessible to approximately 1,000 current volunteers. It was also immediately reposted to the popular fandom community Fail Fandom Anon (https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/596934.html?thread=3656005574#cmt365) and from there spread to numerous social media sites. I don't know who reposted it. I don't know if this person thought they were helping me or hurting me. Regardless of their intentions, the damage rapidly spread beyond my ability to contain it, and in a way that the OTW knew or should have known would happen.

Even though this statement did not name me, responses to the statement make it clear that the majority of people within the OTW and fandom at large immediately understood the following facts:

1.) That it was about me.
2.) That it was an attempt to defame me by implication.
3.) That it was retaliation for my recent criticisms of the OTW's treatment of volunteers in the wake of the October 2021 and May 2022 cyberattacks, as well as the OTW's general negligent handling of CSAM and CSEM on AO3.

After consulting with an attorney, I reached out to the Board of Directors on 1 June 2023, demanding a retraction of Legal's statement. In that message, I specified that I neither need nor want an apology for the events of 2022. I want you to repair the reputational damage you've done to me in 2023.

It has been a month since I made that demand. This email from you is not a retraction. In fact, it fails to address the issue at all, and attempts to erroneously frame my concerns as you having hurt my feelings in 2022. My feelings are nowhere near the actual concern. My reputation has been harmed by the Legal Committee and Board of Directors accusing me of thousands of felonies.

I have no desire to discuss the changes to OTW's toxic and abusive workplace culture you plan to make in response to my disclosure of that toxic and abusive culture. That is not my concern: it is yours. My only concern is that you retract the defamatory statements you made to me in a manner that is exactly as public as the defamatory statements themselves were. A private communication to me will not suffice to repair the reputational damage OTW's Board and Legal Committee have caused me.

Because my real life identity is known to various members of the Board of Directors and Legal Committee who were involved in defaming me, as well as to others in fandom, I fear that this damage will spread to my real name and affect both my family and my career. The only way you can repair this damage is to retract your statement. A Zoom call would be neither productive nor sufficient for the only communication I am interested in receiving from the OTW Board of Directors and Legal, which is a retraction of the accusations you made against me that is issued in writing to the same audience to which you made the accusations of 30 May.

If you truly did not mean to defame me, then making a retraction should be simple. Your continued failure to make this situation right only serves as further evidence that the damage you have caused was intentional and malicious.

Azarias

So, that's it. They did what I needed them to do. It's done and I can stop asking them about it. I hope other volunteers don't have to deal with similar treatment. I hope I never need to post unanon on FFA again. I'm really tired.