Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 07:57pm on 18 Nov 2023,Saturday International
Fifteen UK government departments have allegedly been monitoring potential critics on social media and compiling "secret files" to prevent them from speaking at public events. Under the guidelines issued to government departments like education, health, culture, media and sport, environment, food, and rural affairs, officials are advised to check experts’ Twitter, Facebook, and Google to identify critics in the past 3-5 years. Human rights lawyers have slammed the "dangerous" monitoring uncovered by the Observer. The revelations are seen as embarrassing for the Conservative government which champions free speech and criticized universities for allowing students to “no platform” experts with whom they disagree.
