A body linked to the UK Home Office has been keeping files on people who criticize government programs online.
Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Prevent Standards and Compliance Unit logged 77 "observations" of critics. Most came from X, and some came from Reddit. Posts from or about groups like Hope Not Hate and Open Rights Group were also included.
The entries were filed as "open-source complaints" and stored internally. The unit also tried to independently verify the claims made in them.
The Home Office refused to release any of this. Rights & Security International won an appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, and only then did the documents come out.
Nobody knows whether automated tools found the posts. Nobody knows who the data gets shared with. You should be able to criticize government policy without ending up in a file.
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-prevent-unit-tracked-online-critics
reclaimthenet / Reclaim The Net
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2026-10-03 19:31:59 UTC
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"content": "A body linked to the UK Home Office has been keeping files on people who criticize government programs online.\n\nBetween March 2024 and February 2025, the Prevent Standards and Compliance Unit logged 77 \"observations\" of critics. Most came from X, and some came from Reddit. Posts from or about groups like Hope Not Hate and Open Rights Group were also included.\n\nThe entries were filed as \"open-source complaints\" and stored internally. The unit also tried to independently verify the claims made in them.\n\nThe Home Office refused to release any of this. Rights \u0026 Security International won an appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, and only then did the documents come out.\n\nNobody knows whether automated tools found the posts. Nobody knows who the data gets shared with. You should be able to criticize government policy without ending up in a file.\n\nhttps://reclaimthenet.org/uk-prevent-unit-tracked-online-critics",
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