Unsuspecting social media users have ended up on a government database for criticising policy.
Social media posts criticising government policy are being monitored and investigated by officials, Metro can reveal.
Negative X and Reddit posts from unsuspecting Brits attacking the UK’s anti-terror programme Prevent were added to a database of critical online comments.
Metro has obtained a list of nearly 80 critical posts found and logged by the Standards and Compliance Unit (StaCU), which oversees Prevent, between March 2024 to February 2025.
One campaign group whose tweet was recorded on the database said the revelations raised ‘serious questions about freedom of expression and the right to dissent and protest’ in the UK.
One of the X posts logged in the database of critical comments about Prevent
The Home Office refused to release information on the database of posts for more than a year
Jacob Smith, who fought for a year to get the Home Office to publish the information, said: ‘You should be allowed to criticise government policy without being put on a list.’
StaCU is an ‘opaque’ body set up in February 2024 to address and investigate complaints about Prevent, the safeguarding programme designed to stop people becoming terrorists.
As well as processing reports made directly to the unit, officials appear to be actively scouring the net for critical posts about Prevent.
Freedom of Information requests – seen exclusively by Metro – has revealed the 77 negative online comments logged by StaCU.
Many of these posts came from ordinary Brits who wouldn’t suspect that government officials would be looking at their feeds.
A large number of the investigated comments are claims that Prevent is ‘biased’ in how it trains public sector staff to spot the early signs of radicalisation.
One X user ended up on the list because after they claimed that called the training ‘complete bullshit’.
They complained: ‘Anyone’s who done the prevent training knows it only talks about the far right. Islam extremism isn’t even mentioned.’
Another poster complained that they ‘sat through Prevent training at work… and the narrative was very much that the far right is the biggest threat’. They added: ‘I kid you not!’
A large number of posts were criticising Prevent for being over focused on the Far Right
While many claims relate to claims that Prevent is overly focused on right-wing extremism, other posts investigated by StaCU are negative about the government in different ways.
One Tweet claims that Prevent ‘closes down conversations in the classroom’ because ‘ Muslim children are seen as a “threat”.’
Another X user is on the list because they alleged that Muslim children could be referred to Prevent for ‘saying Free Palestine’.
Open Rights Group, a digital rights campaigning organisation, had one of their tweets logged which said: ‘How data is managed and stored under the Prevent programme lacks transparency.’
Open Right said they were ‘deeply concerned’ about revelations their own critical posts were being stored by the government.
Their Programme Manager for Pre-Crime, Sarah Lasoye, told Metro: ‘Prevent has expanded far beyond its stated aim of identifying people considered “vulnerable to radicalisation”, and has increasingly been used to justify extensive surveillance.
‘It is deeply concerning to see the Prevent duty being used to enable the monitoring of people and organisations simply because they are critical of the programme. That raises serious questions about freedom of expression and the right to dissent and protest.
‘There is also a troubling lack of transparency about what happens to the information gathered through this social media monitoring: how long it is retained, who it is shared with, and ultimately what the government is using it for.’
The Open Rights Group were concerned to find out this tweet was also flagged by officials
StaCU say they attempt to independently verify claims about Prevent, which they could only do for 10% of posts.
The Unit’s parent body, Commission for Countering Extremism, does publicly reply to some, but not all, of the posts in their list asking the user to submit a formal complaint about Prevent.
In response to one post, which claims Prevent training is ‘turning a blind eye to Islam’, the Commission says: ‘Hello, we process and investigate complaints about Prevent and are interested in finding out more about the training referenced above. Please feel free to DM us, tweet us back, or make a formal complaint using this link.’
The message provides a link where the user can report a concern with Prevent, but does not publicly inform them their own complaint has been logged in a database by officials.
It is not clear what happens to the posts once they are recorded on the list and who accesses the information about them. StaCU’s mission is to improve the effectiveness of Prevent.
The Home Office fought for more than a year not to disclose their ‘database’ of critical X and Reddit posts.
Jacob Smith from Rights & Security International first asked the Home Office for information on StaCU’s observation of social media tweets in July 2025.
Jacob Smith tried to get the Home Office to publish the database for more than a year
They refused to respond with the list of posts for more than a year, until they were forced to after an appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Smith, Freedom of Expression and Belief Team Leader at the human rights group, told Metro: ‘People should be able to express their views on social media without that being catalogued in government databases.
‘You should be allowed to criticise government policy without being put on a list.’
Rights & Security International are concerned about the Home Office’s ‘resistance to disclosing this information’ and want to know ‘who has access to’ it.
He added: ‘Whilst these may be social media posts, these are not people who have posted thinking that the government might be looking at their feed and taking that data. It is in an almost private setting. That is one of the key concerns.’
Smith also said he and his team also don’t know what happens to the information it grabs, if it is shared, and how officials decide what to probe.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism also had one of their posts added to the database of critical comments.
Their Tweet does not mention Prevent by name but criticised a Hezbollah vigil, designated a terrorist group in the UK, allegedly not being taken seriously by police officers.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘We aren’t sure whether to be flattered or concerned that StaCU has picked up a post of ours.
‘If it’s because we’ve dared to be critical of law enforcement’s lax attitude toward Islamist extremism in this country, we stand by what we said and would reiterate it for as long as it takes to bring about change.
‘But if our post was flagged because StaCU agrees with us that police forces have failed to train their officers on what Islamist terrorism looks like and which organisations are banned, we hope that the message is being received and change is coming.’
A Home Office Spokesperson said: ‘Prevent does not track people who may have criticised the programme, and nor does it target any particular community.
‘Keeping the public safe is our number one priority and we are committed to ensuring that everyone is protected from radicalisation.
‘Prevent plays a crucial role in this by safeguarding those at risk of radicalisation, having moved more than 6,000 people away from violent ideologies since 2015.’
