At least 15 British government departments have been engaged in a deliberate social media and internet profiling campaign against public experts in various fields, to prevent critics from speaking at cabinet-sponsored events, the Observer newspaper reported, citing a trove of data it had seen.
The profiling usually involved checking a person’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts as well as doing a Google search on such individuals using keywords like “criticism of the government or prime minister.”
According to Kaszeta, he received a public apology from the government in July and was informed in August that the 15 departments in question had withdrawn those guidelines pending a Cabinet Office review.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office told the Observer that the government was “reviewing the guidance and have temporarily withdrawn it to prevent any misinterpretation of the rules.” /TelegraphNews