News / Politics

Townsend defends council’s social media monitoring

By Alex Seabrook  Friday Jun 27, 2025

In opposition, Green councillor Christine Townsend criticised the surveillance of the social media accounts of parents with disabled children and called for an inquiry.

But in power, she is questioning if an inquiry is needed.

Townsend has now defended what has previously been called the “spying” by Bristol City Council of several parents who were deemed to be too critical of the council’s education department.

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The scandal caused an uproar and there are still several questions left unanswered.

Since May 2024, Townsend has chaired the children and young people policy committee at City Hall and during a committee meeting on Thursday, she faced questions about whether the social media monitoring is still taking place and why an inquiry still has not been set up.

Labour councillor Kerry Bailes, a mother of a child with special educational needs, claimed she was spied on herself.

“Our social media accounts were tracked and screenshots were taken,” Bailes said.

“Some of those officers still work here. I’m included in that and I’ve seen the evidence.

“The council still denies it happened. We were promised an independent investigation and we haven’t had it.

“My concern is that this did happen. The council can deny it all they want. This happened to a small group of us.

“We want assurances that this is not going to happen again, that it isn’t still happening; and we want an inquiry into why it happened.

“That’s what we were promised. We want answers. I know that I was spied on on social media. It wasn’t a short little snapshot. It was over a long period.”

Bristol SEND campaigners won a previous legal battle against Bristol City Council – photo: Bristol SEND

Several parents had their social media accounts monitored by council staff after criticising the provision of special educational needs support in Bristol.

Internal emails were leaked in July 2022 revealing how staff collected and shared a dossier of critical social media posts, cross-referencing anonymous Twitter accounts with private Facebook wedding photos.

Townsend said: “The thing I would say about social media is that if somebody puts something in the public domain, it’s not spying.

“If something is in the public domain, they have put it in the public domain.”

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Townsend added: “There are certain officers whose role it is to do communication, and it would be perfectly acceptable for them to do that.

“There are other officers for whom it wouldn’t be acceptable for them to be doing it.

“There was a legal case that was settled, that could have been taken further and it wasn’t.

“You would have to ask the previous administration as to what the motivation was.

“There isn’t a motivation to be looking at the social media accounts of parents, other than where there is a legitimate reason and concern around safeguarding, but that would still only be stuff that’s in the public domain.”

According to council guidance given to staff, the view of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office is that if council staff repeatedly view social media accounts, without the knowledge of the person, this could be “covert surveillance”.

Townsend added that ongoing legal cases when the Greens took control of the council, in May 2024, prevented them from setting up an inquiry. But those cases are now not still ongoing.

The legal case that was settled was with Jen Smith, a mother whose social media was monitored. According to her posts on X, the council “frustrated the legal process at every opportunity”, and she would have preferred to go to court but the council “wouldn’t behave”.

Green councillor Shona Jemphrey asked: “So if it was felt that there was a need, there could still be an inquiry if it was felt that there were still questions needed to be answered?”

Labour councillor Katja Hornchen added: “If there’s been a settlement, then surely an inquiry can begin.

“I don’t know if it’s true but I’ve heard that there’s still some (monitoring) ongoing. Maybe it’s just a fear that the spying is still ongoing.

“The people who did it are still employed. I can understand the fear and insecurity that still pervades.”

Townsend replied: “We would need to understand what those questions were. There’s been a settlement. A settlement is both sides coming to an agreement. If there are still things that are outstanding, then that would be for that case to be made.”

Christine Townsend is a former teacher with particular expertise in special educational needs – photo: Rob Browne

Several questions were raised during a council debate in October 2022 regarding the monitoring.

In a motion seconded by Townsend, who was then in opposition, councillors voted to hold an independent inquiry to answer those questions.

These included who was ultimately responsible for the scandal, why the council did not have a policy in place to prevent the practice, and if staff “infiltrated private Facebook groups”.

Another question was whether the monitoring was approved by leading councillors, which is still unanswered.

In the 2022 debate, Townsend said: “The powers and resources used to investigate our citizens must be used with very strict boundaries and ensured that it doesn’t become an abuse of power or a method to silence.

“Weaponising power to silence and defund is a path to authoritarianism.

“It’s my belief that this is why an independent investigation is needed. There was found to be no formal process followed for gaining internal legal permission to undertake this collection of material.

“It involved cross-referencing social media accounts and the collation of an evidence bundle that was then used by the lead for education.

“While we were told that no elected members authorised this, it suggests to me that such practices were assumed to be normalised under the political leadership of this organisation.

“In the words of Tony Benn, those who sacrifice their view in order to get to the top, very often leave no footprint in the sand. It’s those boat-rockers who are the ones who build the craft.”

Main photo: Rob Browne

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