Sheffield University accused of paying security firm to ‘spy’ on pro-Palestine activists

The University of Sheffield has been accused of “spying” on pro-Palestine students, after it used an external “horizon scanning” service to monitor their social media.

This comes after an investigation by Al Jazeera revealed 12 British universities, including Sheffield, paid a private security service around £440,000 to provide intelligence over several years.

The information comes after Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to more that 150 universities.

The private security services, Horus Security Consultancy Limited, had links to former military intelligence officials and was used to monitor student activity through social media, focusing especially on student protests and the pro-Palestine movement. There is no suggestion this activity is illegal.

Among those monitored were a Palestinian academic invited to give a guest lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University and a pro-Gaza PhD student at a Russell Group university.

Horizon scanning is used monitor developments on campus, such as large-scale protests that may affect Sheffield specifically

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Lizzie Hobbs, the PhD student, said it is “deeply scary” to see how much money universities are “willing to invest” into monitoring its student’s social media accounts. She was only made aware her social media posts had been monitored when she was approached for comment by Al Jazeera.

Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, the guest speaker, was also not aware she was being monitored. In emails sent between Manchester Metropolitan University staff and Horus, MMU asked Horus to conduct a counter terror “threat assessment” on the scholar. “They actually made an assumption of guilt and started investigating me because of my scholarship,” she said.

The University of Sheffield informed The Sheffield Tab the universities use external services to “horizon scan” and share briefings on external issues that may affect the higher education sector. These include cyber security, national and international terrorism and major UK events. The services also monitor developments on campus, such as large-scale protests that may affect Sheffield specifically.

Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, said: “The use of AI to harvest and analyse student data under the guise of open source intelligence raises profound legal concerns.”Jo Grady, general secretary of the UK’s largest union for lecturers and university staff, said it was “shameful” that institutions had “wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds spying on their own students”.

Palestine protests through the Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign are still ongoing within the city, with groups often involving students meeting outside the town hall and then every Friday at Sheffield train station.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons