Dorset Council apologises for spying on private Facebook group
Dorset Council apologised and says it's updating its social media policy
Last updated 10th Sep 2021
Dorset Council has apologised after members of a private Facebook group for campaigners accused a staff member of spying on them.
Jurassic Coast Against Incineration asks all it's group members to disclose why they are joining upon sign up, but discovered a council communications officer had not done so upon joining 18 months ago.
The group was set up to campaign against and discuss a controversial planning application to building a waste incinerator on Portland, something it claims would be harmful to the environment.
The group's leader, Dave Warren, found out staff members at the council had been discussing the group as part of a subject access request - which allows a person to request data the council holds on them. This revealed e-mail discussions between two members of staff about Mr Warren that included a decision to join the group.
Dave Warren said:
"This particular officer from Dorset Council joined it the group and didn't make themselves known as being an employee of Dorset Council and to their own admission sat on that Facebook group for 18 months in order to watch what we were actually discussing.
"Now that, I think, is bad news. It's bad news for trust in Dorset Council, it's bad news when it comes to a big social issue like the proposal to build a waste incinerator. Dorset Council should be engaging with the public, not spying on them."
Mr Warren told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset he found it 'creepy' to discover the member of staff had been signed up to the group without contributing for 18 months, so he confronted them about it.
Dorset Council has since apologised to Mr Warren and removed the member from the Facebook group. It's also promised to update it's social media policy - something Mr Warren applauds.
It says social media groups enable them to listen and engage with the public, but recognises it was wrong for the staff member to not declare their interest to the group.
Mr Warren added:
"All I can say is clearly, they have treated now the issue of an officer from their organisation acting in a surveillance manner on a private Facebook group for 18 months as something serious and I applaud them for that.
"They could have tried to hide and run away from this and they haven't.
"But nevertheless, the public at large should be feeling a lot more confident about the neutrality of Dorset Council when it comes to evaluating this planning application than they appear to be behaving now."
A Dorset Council spokesperson said:
“We can confirm that a member of the council’s communications team joined the Jurassic Coast Against Incineration Facebook group. We agree that the officer should not have joined this group without declaring their professional capacity. The council’s social media policy at the time was not sufficiently clear on this point.
“Dorset Council gave a full apology to the individual who set up the Jurassic Coast Against Incineration Facebook group when this came to light, and the communications officer involved left the group immediately. We have learnt from this case and we are currently amending our social media policy and training staff to ensure this does not happen again.
“A key part of the council’s activity on social media is to listen and engage for the benefit of the public. These platforms play an important role in providing the council with feedback about council services and the broad range of decisions we regularly make.
"Social media provides insights into the types of issues that are of particular concern to diverse communities across Dorset, and in turn, we tailor our communications to address issues that matter most to people.”