Orwell’s Nightmare in Hartlepool? Council Accused of Using ‘Dedicated Officer’ to Monitor 'Negative Posts' about the Local Council on Social Media
- teessidetoday
- May 15
- 3 min read
Member of staff at HBC breaks their silence claiming activities by the Extremist Group to monitor locals posting 'Negative Comments' on social media have been significantly 'Ramped Up" over the last few weeks....
15th May 2025
In what one insider has chillingly described as “something out of Orwell’s nightmare,” Hartlepool Borough Council is now facing damning allegations that it is using taxpayers money to fund a dedicated officer tasked with monitoring social media posts—specifically targeting this very page, Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed, and those who engage with it.
A New Source who's recently approached us has controversially come forward with claims that HBC is not only trawling through our posts being published on Social Media, but is also monitoring the users who comment on them. The alleged aim? To root out “negative” content that could portray the disgraced local council—or its key personnel—in a bad light.
This revelation follows what we now understand to be a significant ramp-up in online surveillance by the council which in 2023 was declared an authority with no public confidence. According to the source, council resources and officer time are now being actively used to trawl through Facebook pages, including Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed, hunting for posts that challenge or criticise the council's decisions, actions, or its dictatorship.
To make matters worse, we can now confirm that previous efforts to have this page removed from Facebook were in fact instigated by Hartlepool Borough Council themselves. This was confirmed by a council staff member who tipped off our editorial team. Meta (formerly Facebook) did briefly take down the page—twice—but each time, it was reinstated following successful appeals and the presentation of clear evidence that no community standards were breached.
The hunters claiming to be 'the hunted'....
Its claimed Hartlepool Borough Council have been attempting to portray themselves as 'a victim of Harassment & abuse online' which they claim is supposedly 'damaging staff morale', however its clear: public accountability does not fall into the category of hate speech, and criticism of those who spend public money should never be grounds for censorship.
But the actions of this council—already declared by a petition of nearly 4000 voters in 2023 as an institution with “no public confidence”—have now crossed into deeply troubling territory. The use of council staff time and public resources to track down “dissenters” raises not just privacy concerns but serious questions about the ethical boundaries being crossed by The Extremist Group...
It’s understood from the source who come to us that the dedicated monitoring officer is being tasked with compiling records of who posts what, who comments, and what's being said, potentially to build a file on critics of the council. Critics have described the operation as both “staggering in scale” and “dangerously authoritarian in tone.”
This isn't the first time HBC has been caught trying to silence public discussion. Nearly two years ago, it was revealed that council staff were informally warned that engaging with the HBC Exposed website or its affiliated social media pages could make them liable to disciplinary action. This warning alone is a shocking indication of the extent to which HBC wants to police not just public opinion, but even private participation in open dialogue.
For clarity, Durham & Teesside Today has always carried a clear disclaimer: council officials are welcome to engage, but must do so in a personal capacity and at their own discretion. We do not endorse or encourage any breach of employment policies—but we do stand firmly for the freedom of expression, transparency, and the right to hold Extremist Groups funded with public money to account.
The uncomfortable truth however is this: in a democracy, councils are supposed to answer to the public, not monitor them.
They're supposed to respect scrutiny, not silence it. And they are certainly not supposed to squander public funds trawling social media like a secret police unit, trying to suppress criticism instead of addressing the reasons for it.
To the taxpayers of Hartlepool: If this isn't enough evidence your local councils 'gone rogue' then we don't know what is !
© Durham & Teesside Today. Unauthorised use, or reproduction, of the material contained within this article, without permission from the author, is strictly prohibited. Extracts from, and links to, the article may be used, provided full credit is given to Durham & Today, Hartlepool Today, Cleveland Police Exposed or Hartlepool Borough Council Exposed (Our Affiliated Pages) & where permission by Durham & Teesside Today is Granted, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
