Revealed: UK government keeping files on education critics’ social media activity

Ruth Swailes, an early childhood specialist, alleges the Department for Education tried to cancel a conference she was speaking at because she had criticised its policies. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer

The Department for Education (DfE) is keeping files monitoring the social media activity of some of the country’s leading educational experts, the Observer can reveal.

At least nine experts have uncovered files held on them, some as long as 60 pages. One individual even discovered the department had compiled an Excel spreadsheet in which officials had detailed who she interacted with.