AO3 VOLUNTEERS ARE BEING ABUSED.

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What is pac?

PAC stands for "Policy & Abuse" and is the committee within the OTW, which runs AO3, that handles abuse reports, including CSEM (child sexual exploitation material), violent GIFs (animal harm, etc) and harassment between users.

pac volunteer abuse

Initially anonymous, and then under her fandom name, a former volunteer came forward to expose severe abuse of volunteers within the OTW by the OTW's Legal team and the Board.PAC is responsible for moderating content that may break the TOS. azarias described a team that could not perform moderation because it was controlled by the OTW's ideologically motivated Legal team, whose interpretation of the AO3 Terms of Service is so extreme that volunteers cannot protect themselves or users.Please be aware that the following material contains descriptions of CSEM and trauma aquired from moderating it.

"The pornographic gifs in Underage fic were more distressing to me. I can't swear that none of them involved minors. [...] I had no way to tell. I hated having to examine it closely. I hated having to wonder. I hated knowing I would have to find proof that it was illegal content, rather than being able to ask for proof that it wasn't.[...] I very badly wanted to ban this and could not, because Legal says gifs are transformative fanworks and Disney had recently implied it wanted to crack down on gifs."- former AO3 volunteer azarias, discussing dealing with reports of CSEM content on AO3

Since azarias stopped volunteering, PAC has been empowered to remove unsourced gifs that may depict child sex abuse.The OTW has still not empowered PAC to make their own enforcement decisions based on their volunteers' experience or industry best practice.

"The tl;dr is that AO3's handling of CSEM-related matters is another area where I believe there was a clear need for outside expertise and tools, but the OTW decided to DIY a solution with the labor of non-experts, i.e. me and other PAC volunteers.The OTW didn't provide resources or consider hiring outside experts even when PAC volunteers and chairs asked for it.AFAIK we met our legal obligations, but nothing else."- former AO3 volunteer azarias, discussing the OTW's refusal to provide PAC with tools to manage CSEM reports

"One justification for not improving working conditions is that we're all volunteers and there's no penalty for quitting.There's no penalty even for refusing to handle particular topics. No one ever asked me to handle CSEM tickets for PAC and no one criticized me for leaving. But of course it's not that simple. People volunteer for the OTW because they care about its goals. We make friends in the org. Every CSEM-related ticket I didn't handle was a ticket a colleague would have to handle instead, and I didn't want them to have to."- former AO3 volunteer azarias, describing the OTW's negligence towards PAC and lack of structure to safeguard volunteers

2022 SPAM ATTACK

In May 2022, the OTW was attacked by a spammer who sent CSEM to volunteers via email and threatened to doxx them.The OTW claimed that "[p]rotecting our volunteers and safeguarding this investigation is our top priority right now."The OTW had previously experienced a CSEM attack directed at PAC volunteers.

"[T]hey had warning. A similar event happened a couple of months earlier, probably the same person doing it, but it only affected PAC. PAC warned Support because Support uses the same ticketing system, and the chairs told Legal and Board what was happening.
[...]
The attacker escalating to affect more volunteers was predictable, and the Org sat with its thumb up its ass instead. I'm very sorry you were directly threatened. That did not have to happen."-former AO3 volunteer azarias, describing OTW leadership's failure to protect volunteers from CSEM attacks

Isolated & BULLIED

In the wake of the May 2022 attacks, volunteer access to Slack and other tools was suspended.azarais assumed her suspension was the same as everyone else's.It wasn't.

"Legal did not technically expel me from the org. Legal suspended me from the org on the 6th of May last year, two days after the initial attack. They let me back in two months later [...]As for why, I'm not sure. I kind of have a hunch that they suspected me of being behind the attacks, but they denied it when I asked why I was suspended and I can't prove that they're lying. [...]6 May, Slack and some other tools kick me out. [...] I assumed this was part of further efforts to secure the org's systems.As a couple of days passed, I was confused as to why there hadn't been any follow-up when the first outage was only hours long, but I know how long it takes for things to happen at the org, so I wasn't too worried. [...]11th May, having heard nothing, I emailed Board, Legal, and my PAC chairs asking what was going on. I was pretty snippy about it, because by this time I was upset at the lack of communication.Betsy the Legal chair responded: "We apologize. This was a move made specifically at Legal’s request, and we mistakenly thought someone had communicated with you about it – it is entirely our fault.Don’t worry, you are not a suspect. We disabled your account temporarily as an emergency measure in an excess of caution because we thought, based on some timing coincidences, that it may have been compromised." [...]22 July, I sent another email asking about my status. [...] And then I was back in. [...] My chairs pulled me into a private chat and apologized for what had happened.They told me that they were not consulted.They were given less than an hour's notice I was being suspended.They weren't told why, and their objections were overruled.They were told specifically not to speak to me or about me during the suspension. They weren't previously aware that Legal could unilaterally suspend a PAC volunteer.Now, what makes me wonder about Legal's motivation is that some of this is nonsense.Being ordered to pretend I don't exist is strange if I wasn't under suspicion. [...] Further, if my accounts had been compromised, then there may have been useful evidence of the attacker's location, means, or identity that deleting my accounts either erased or made accessible only by going through the service provider, like Slack, which can be an onerous process compared to an administrator just being able to look at the account directly. And the silence was deafening."- former AO3 volunteer azarias, describing being suspended from the OTW on thin pretext from the Board and Legal

"Here's what you need to take away from this. It's been an ENTIRE YEAR since the CSEM attack and the Board has still not got its shit together. They don't have a procedure for the next time an emergency happens. They haven't considered it important to "get around to" documenting what they've done and what they're supposed to do.They knew months in advance that the CSEM attack was likely. They've now had twelve months to regroup after it happened.They don't have to predict anything. They just need to spend five fucking minutes giving a shit about their volunteers.On another note, I got confirmation that my suspension was due to a faction of sitting Directors, Emerita Directors, and chairs who wanted to get rid of me (but couldn't figure out the existing process for doing it) teaming up with a faction who genuinely believed that I committed nine hundred separate felonies across three dozen international borders. [...]If you're reading this and you work for the org, quit. This cannot be fixed. It will hurt you if you try. These people are utterly unserious and incompetent to the point of malice. They don't care about you.[...] Volunteers were needlessly hurt last time. They will be needlessly hurt next time, and Board doesn't think it's worth the time to "get around to" figuring out how to tell their collective ass from their elbows. IT'S BEEN A YEAR."- former AO3 volunteer azarias, discussing receiving confirmation from active volunteers that she was pushed out of the org by people with personal vendettas

RACISM &
HARASSMENT

azarias' revelations make it clear that PAC cannot moderate AO3 because Legal won't let them. Legal insists on being the final step for interpreting the TOS. This is not how Trust & Safety is supposed to work.Preventing harassment must be a priority of the archive. Right now, no one has the ability to overrule a negligent, abusive, bullying Legal committee.The Board has this power. They choose not to use it.Legal insists that graphically racist icons and material, such as avowing support for the KKK via your user icon, does not violate AO3 Terms of Service.

RETALIATION

After azarias went public with her abuse, the OTW Board and Legal acted quickly to retaliate.They released messages to all 900+ volunteers describing the chain of events that led to azarias' suspension and heavily implying that they still thought azarias was the CSEM spammer.They have no evidence to support this position.They have bullied a vulnerable volunteer, who was open about experiencing unnecessary trauma from her work, out of the org.You can read this unethical smear job here. It has been independently verified as real by the founder of dreamwidth.org.

THIS MUST END.

Members must demand accountability.

Sources: FFA 1, FFA 2, FFA 3, FFA 4, FFA 5, FFA 6, FFA 7, AO3 Email Attack StatementI created this carrd to spread the word about what I believe to be a very serious abuse of power by the OTW Board and Legal. You can find me on AO3 which has my most up to date socials and via email, iateyourlawngnome at gmail, to correct any inaccuracies in this carrd.