Did UK universities pay to ‘spy’ on pro‑Palestine students?
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This episode of The Take investigates a shocking revelation: 12 UK universities have paid a private security firm, Horus, to monitor the social media activity of students and staff involved in pro-Palestine activism. Reporter Aaron Waller-Walker, from Liberty Investigates, details how Freedom of Information requests uncovered that universities have spent over £400,000 since 2022 on intelligence services provided by Horus—a company founded by former military intelligence officials, including Colonel Tim Collins, known for his controversial statements on pro-Palestine protests. The firm compiles daily briefings on protest activity, conducts background checks on speakers (such as Palestinian academic Rabab Abdelhadi), and flags student posts, including tweets from activists like Lizzie Hobbs of LSE. Despite universities claiming their use of Horus is for 'horizon scanning' and campus security, critics argue this constitutes surveillance that undermines free speech and academic freedom. The episode concludes with a call to action: listeners are directed to the Campus Accountability Mapping Project (CAMP) at campusprotest.org.uk to request their own data from universities and hold institutions accountable.
12 UK universities have paid Horus, a private intelligence firm, to monitor pro-Palestine student activism since 2022.
Horus uses AI and open-source data to compile daily briefings on protest activity, including social media posts.
Universities have conducted background checks on speakers like Rabab Abdelhadi without their knowledge, raising ethical and legal concerns.
Students and staff are being surveilled systemically, with some facing disciplinary action or legal consequences.
The Campus Accountability Mapping Project (CAMP) offers free templates to request personal data from universities.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The Shocking Revelation
“Did British universities pay to spy on pro-Palestine students? To think that universities were paying an external company to keep track of things that me and my peers might have been posting on social media really wasn't within my imagination at that time.”
The Investigation Begins
Aaron Waller-Walker explains how he began the investigation by submitting FOI requests to 150+ UK universities, uncovering a network of campus security collaboration and the role of Horus as a central intelligence provider.
Meet Horus: The Firm Behind the Surveillance
“Horus was founded in 2006 in Oxford. It began life as a project with Oxford University's security team. And it was set up by Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Whiteley, who, according to his website, has a 23-year long career in military intelligence and counterintelligence operations across the world.”
How Surveillance Works on Campus
“One university, Manchester Metropolitan, commissioned Horace to conduct a background check on an American-Palestinian speaker, Rabab Abdelhadi, who was affected.”
Student Reactions and the Path Forward
“If you want to kind of stand up and do activism, it's important to know what the potential risks are. And one way to unearth that is by requesting all your class of data from your university.”
“The use of artificial intelligence to gather open source information does raise profound legal concerns in the sense that AI can be used to gather disproportionate amounts of evidence on students by companies which are not subject to public scrutiny.”
“If you want to kind of stand up and do activism, it's important to know what the potential risks are. And one way to unearth that is by requesting all your class of data from your university.”
“The UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Assembly and Association, Gina Romero, said that the use of artificial intelligence to gather open source information does raise profound legal concerns.”
Hosts
Guest
Horus
organization
Aaron Waller-Walker
person
Malika Bilal
person
Liberty Investigates
organization
Rabab Abdelhadi
person
Al Jazeera
organization
Manchester Metropolitan University
organization
London School of Economics
organization
Tim Collins
person
Campus Accountability Mapping Project
other
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