Local Council Accused of Monitoring Social Media Accounts of Critics...
- teessidetoday
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Hartlepool Borough Council is being accused of engaging in "Big Brother Tactics" following claims from a whistle-blower that a number of social media accounts online are being 'monitored' by a dedicated council officer...
26th May 2025
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”– George Orwell..
Shocking revelations have emerged from inside Hartlepool Borough Council which could lead to a major investigation into social media 'snooping' by one of Teesside's most troubled institutions.
It comes following a whistle-blower approaching Durham & Teesside Today claiming that a "dedicated officer" has been quietly assigned by Hartlepool Borough Council to trawl social media groups critical of the local council & monitor residents’ social media replies— not to help, but to hunt down dissent & in some cases, even reporting those posts to the police.....
Social Media Surveillance in Hartlepool
According to the council insider, the officer’s role is to monitor and flag posts made in groups seemingly critical of the local council — with two of those groups being said to be Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed (HBC Exposed) and 'Hartlepool Grot Spots', two social media pages operating on the Facebook Platform that document issues such as fly-tipping, waste, public neglect, and questionable council spending, with the source telling us that Hartlepool Borough Council has been actively trying to shut both pages down — by any means necessary for at least two years...
The whistle-blower told us that when official complaints to Meta UK (Facebook’s parent company) reportedly failed to silence the pages, council officials then allegedly held a number of internal meetings to explore “alternative methods” such as identifying & then restricting the page admins access to council services, or in more extreme cases, have the admins of those groups monitored or even arrested by police...
Council Whistle-blower Exposes Dirty Tricks...
The insider alleges that at least one contributor to the social media page HBC Exposed was directly & maliciously targeted by at least one senior council official. The contributor, who merely posted criticism of a council decision, was then allegedly reported to police and hauled in for questioning — not for committing a crime, but for exercising free speech.
A document shown to Durham & Teesside Today appearing to bear the logo of Cleveland Police documenting the investigation confirmed that multiple failed attempts were made by Hartlepool Borough Council to have the social media page HBC Exposed forcibly removed from Facebook. Since then, the page has been taken down at least twice in the space of just 12 months, only to be reinstated on appeal..
After hitting a brick wall, the whistly-blower claims, they 'shifted gears' — working instead to have one of the contributors to the HBC Exposed page prosecuted.. albeit unsuccessfully !
Around the time this incidents alleged to have occurred, its claimed Cleveland Police were said to be 'investigating' one of HBC Exposed contributors, the source confirming to us that a meeting was convened between a number of council officials & Cleveland Police in a bid to secure 'a multi agency approach' to dealing with the social media group.
The Price of Speaking Out
Since its creation some six years ago, HBC Exposed has published dozens of reports exposing failings and backroom deals occurring within Hartlepool Borough Council. It’s said to have played a key role in several local businesses cutting ties with the council — and even helped spur a 2023 petition made by two local members of the public declaring the local council unfit to govern.
However, rather than address the issues raised, it seems council officials are now using taxpayer funds to stalk, target, and even punish those raising awareness about their local council, with the source at HBC telling us that: "it really is the stuff of authoritarian regimes".
Britain's Dirty Secret: Arrested for Posts
In Russia — a nation often mocked in the West for censorship — its claimed the number of arrests for social media comments in one year sits at around 400.
In Britain's smashing that figure.
Where its now claimed up to 30 people a day are being arrested across the UK for social media activity, many of those triggered by reports made by council official's. And often, it's not threats or hate speech — it’s satire, criticism, or simply saying something unpopular.
Council Services Now a Political Weapon
More disturbing still, the whistle-blower alleges that some individuals being monitored on social media have & are still being denied access to council services, simply for being too critical of those working at Hartlepool Borough Council, with the whistle-blower telling us that when the council doesn’t get its way by taking down controversial social media pages critical of their operations, they simply call in the police, using HBC's "dedicated hotline", linking them directly to Cleveland Police's force Control Room.
Yes — a “dedicated hotline” reportedly being used by the council to tip off Cleveland Police about residents who say things they don’t like..
A Chilling Future — Unless We Speak Up
However, it may not all be lost, because nationally & internationally the UK's increasing bid to stamp out criticism or freedom of speech is being noticed, where it seems even the US government is now considering sending Human Rights observers to monitor the UK’s spiralling civil liberty crisis as more and more locals are hauled before the courts & even sent to prison for 'a hurty post' made online, whilst the UK government intends on releasing some of the most dangerous offenders, freeing up court space & more importantly.... prison spaces, because local members of the public dared to speak about their local council in a manner that they... in their opinion feels undermines their power & authority....
