Mumsnet ordered to reveal name of ‘transphobic troll’
A JUDGE has ordered Mumsnet to reveal the identity of a user who has been accused of abusing a transgender activist online.
The parenting forum must share details of the anonymous poster by 4pm today, after campaigner Stephanie Hayden obtained a High Court order.
The user, known only as ‘ALittleHelp18’, is accused of making allegations of criminality which Miss Hayden said were defamatory, and revealing personal information which she said compromised her safety.
Miss Hayden, 45, has been involved in a number of transgender rows. Last year she reported Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan to the police for alleged transphobic harassment.
The court order, issued by Mr Justice William Davis, requires Mumsnet to provide the user’s name, email address and birthday, if available. The user has been removed from the site, along with their comments.
Miss Hayden, a qualified lawyer now working on employment tribunal cases, said she will pursue legal action against the user once their identity is shared, and may even sue Mumsnet as the publisher.
‘The days of defaming, abusing, and harassing transgender people on Mumsnet behind the cloak of anonymity are over,’ she said. ‘If, by some miracle, Mumsnet gives me genuine information which identifies someone and they need to be sued, then they will be sued.’
Miss Hayden began transitioning in 2007 and was last year given a gender recognition certificate, which confirms her legal gender.
She said she was often the target of trolls but this user’s posts went ‘beyond abuse’.
She added: ‘One of the reasons why I got the court order is to send a loud and clear message to those internet trolls that there is a mechanism for finding them and dealing with them.’
Mumsnet, which has 14million users, did not oppose the application but its founder, Justine Roberts, had sug
‘Posts went beyond abuse’
gested if she believed the information might be used maliciously then she would have contested it.
Miss Hayden, who is from Liverpool and now lives in east London, reported Linehan, 50, to Norfolk Police last October after he shared a post which indicated she was a ‘dangerous troll’. She denied the accusation.
She said she also reported him after he shared photos of her ‘former male form’ on Twitter. Linehan was given a verbal harassment warning.
Last December Miss Hayden accused Kate Scottow, 38, from Hertfordshire, of referring to her as a man on Twitter.
The mother, who was arrested, denied defaming or harassing the activist.