Government contracts private firms to monitor public's social media posts

Documents detailing government desire to monitor social media come less than a week after Snowden slammed GCHQ for secretly trying to pass snooping legislation

The government has handed out cross-Whitehall private contracts to technology firms which will enable it to monitor what members of the public post on social media and blogs in real time, reports have claimed.

The agreement – which The Independent reports was subtly slipped out among a raft of other announcements – comes less than a week after government surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden accused the Conservative government of secretly attempting to pass legislation allowing GCHQ to spy on citizens.

Under the terms of the social media monitoring deal, five firms will provide ministers, advisers and officials with real-time information on selected keywords and topics people are discussing on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media.

While the government has always monitored clippings from newspapers, this deal signals the first time Whitehall has publicly suggested that it wants to monitor individuals' social media feeds.

One of the successful bidders is Precise Media Monitoring, which claims it is able to provide government ministers with "automated sentiment" analysis.

"We use advanced text analytics to generate automated analysis for all mainstream and social content. This includes analysis of the key topics being discussed, and hashtags being mentioned and the sentiment of conversations," reads a description of its services.

"The results can quickly enable a contracting body [such as a government department] to get an idea of sentiment towards a subject and can act as an alert to potential issues at an early stage," it adds.

The contract documents also allow the private firms to increase the amount of social media monitoring they perform in the event of a crisis, but there is no firm definition of what would be classed as such.

"The supplier shall provide increased monitoring, coverage, resource and support to the contracting body in the event of heightened public interest or crisis situation," the contracts are reported to say.

The Cabinet Office claims government departments have always monitored social media and that the new contracts only represent providing more value for money.

"We monitor digital, social and traditional media so we understand what people are saying, identify their concerns and shape policies accordingly," said a spokesperson in a statement.

"Departments have always monitored social media but this agreement means they can find the most appropriate way of doing this at the best price, ensuring good value for money for the taxpayer."

Leaked documents have previous claimed that the government seeks to control the internet with social media manipulation, poll hacking and even more snooping.