London, United Kingdom – Twelve British universities paid a non-public agency run by former army intelligence officers to “spy” on pupil protesters and teachers, together with those that have expressed solidarity with Palestine, it may be revealed.
A joint investigation by Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates has uncovered proof that Horus Safety Consultancy Restricted trawled via pupil social media feeds and performed secret counter-terror menace assessments on behalf of a few of Britain’s most elite establishments.
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Horus, which describes itself as a “main intelligence” agency, has been paid a minimum of 440,000 kilos ($594,000) by universities since 2022.
Amongst these monitored had been a Palestinian educational invited to provide a visitor lecture at Manchester Metropolitan College and a pro-Gaza PhD pupil on the London College of Economics, in accordance with inside paperwork.
In October 2024, the College of Bristol offered the agency with an inventory of pupil protest teams it wished to obtain alerts about, an inside college e-mail suggests. It included pro-Palestinian and animal rights activists.
In whole, 12 universities paid the agency to observe campus protest exercise. Others embody the College of Oxford, Imperial Faculty London, College Faculty London (UCL), King’s Faculty London (KCL), the College of Sheffield, the College of Leicester, the College of Nottingham and Cardiff Metropolitan College.
There is no such thing as a suggestion that this exercise is illegitimate.
These findings have come to gentle after Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates submitted freedom of knowledge (FOI) requests to greater than 150 universities.
All of the establishments named on this article had been approached for remark by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates.
The College of Oxford, UCL, KCL, the College of Leicester and the College of Nottingham didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The College of Sheffield stated it used exterior companies to “horizon scan” for points which can have an effect on the college, similar to large-scale upcoming protests, and that it was “incorrect” to recommend this was meant to discourage activism. It added that it didn’t share pupil knowledge with Horus or transient it to observe people, and its precedence is to take care of a secure surroundings whereas supporting lawful protest.
Imperial Faculty London denied that the companies it pays Horus for represent the surveillance of scholars. It equally stated it’s dedicated to free speech and that it makes use of Horus to “assist establish potential safety dangers to its neighborhood, which could embody protest exercise throughout the neighborhood of its campuses. All this info is drawn from the general public area”.
Horus was established in 2006 as a mission throughout the College of Oxford’s safety workforce by former Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Whiteley, who boasts a “23-year profession operating safety, intelligence and counter-intelligence operations everywhere in the world”, in accordance with the corporate’s web site.
In 2020, Colonel Tim Collins turned a director of its mother or father firm. He’s at the moment listed on the web site as considered one of 4 senior leaders of the corporate who “carry all of [their] extraordinary expertise and experience to Horus, on behalf of our purchasers”, and has given a number of speeches at conferences for college safety groups on behalf of the agency.
In recent times, he has publicly blamed the rising quantity and dimension of pro-Gaza demonstrations in Western nations on a “Russian/Iranian orchestrated media marketing campaign”. He has additional known as for non-British protesters “who misbehave” to be deported from the UK.
The agency was paid a complete of 443,943 kilos ($587,399) between January 2022 and March 2025 to supply intelligence to universities within the UK on a spread of areas.
The corporate affords a service known as “Perception”, offering purchasers with open-source intelligence experiences compiled utilizing a device it has developed to “harvest an enormous vary of sources on the web”. In line with its web site, it has been integrating AI into its operations since 2022.
‘Profound authorized considerations’: UN particular rapporteur
Gina Romero, the UN particular rapporteur for freedom of peaceable meeting and of affiliation, stated: “The usage of AI to reap and analyse pupil knowledge underneath the guise of open supply intelligence raises profound authorized considerations.”
It permits for disproportionate quantities of information on college students to be collected by corporations which might be free from public scrutiny, and can be utilized for functions they can’t foresee, she defined.
Al Jazeera approached Horus by e-mail and telephone on March 31, April 1, 7 and eight, in addition to reaching out to Whiteley by e-mail on April 7 and Collins by e-mail and LinkedIn on April 8.
Regardless of these repeated requests, Horus didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s questions in regards to the allegations listed on this article. On its web site, Horus states that it adheres to “the strongest ethics in no matter we do, and are absolutely clear and legally compliant in no matter territory we function in.”
Seven of Horus’s college purchasers refused freedom of knowledge requests from Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates for copies of the briefings they’ve acquired from the agency. 4 stated they had been confidential – regardless of ostensibly being based mostly on info already within the public area.
Six argued that making them freely accessible would undermine Horus’s enterprise mannequin. Part 43 of the UK FOI Act does present an exemption permitting public our bodies to refuse to reveal info thought of commercially delicate. This may very well be info that may prejudice a 3rd social gathering’s industrial pursuits, similar to contractors like Horus.
However different paperwork and emails obtained by way of FOI from three universities – Bristol, LSE and Manchester Metropolitan – shine some gentle on the function the non-public intelligence firm performs in Britain’s crackdown on campus activism.
Jo Grady, normal secretary of the UK’s largest union for lecturers and college employees, the College and Faculty Union (UCU), instructed Al Jazeera it was “shameful” that establishments had “wasted lots of of hundreds of kilos spying on their very own college students”.
‘Bespoke surveillance’
Lizzie Hobbs, a PhD pupil who took half in LSE’s month-long protest encampment in the summertime of 2024, is amongst these whose social media posts had been flagged to the college by Horus.
A wave of pro-Palestinian protest exercise had begun on college campuses worldwide in late 2023, escalating throughout April 2024, as college students demanded their establishments disclose and finish any investments in corporations thought of complicit in Israel’s genocidal struggle on Gaza.
Liberty Investigates obtained a briefing despatched to LSE’s safety workforce on June 18, 2024, containing a put up she wrote a day earlier on X, saying: “We might have been evicted, however we’re extra highly effective and organised as a collective than we have now ever been!”
Her put up was considered one of hundreds from college students compiled into each day “encampment updates” and bought to universities for 900 kilos ($1,215) a month.
Hobbs solely realized that her social media put up had been flagged when Al Jazeera approached her for remark. She stated: “We knew surveillance was occurring by the college, however it’s stunning to see how systematised it’s”.
She added that it’s “deeply scary” to see how a lot cash universities are “keen to take a position” for this objective.
An e-mail seen by Al Jazeera and Liberty exhibits that an LSE safety officer forwarded the Horus briefing, which highlighted Hobbs’ X put up, on to colleagues alongside the remark: “Apparently we had been extremely heavy-handed on the protesters!!”
College students had certainly accused their establishment of heavy-handedness after it obtained a authorized order to evict them from what they are saying was a non-violent constructing occupation calling for LSE to divest from Israel-linked corporations. The college had described the protest as threatening and abusive.
LSE didn’t reply to our request for remark.
One other particular person topic to monitoring was Palestinian-American educational Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi. In 2023, she was invited to talk at a Manchester Metropolitan College (MMU) lecture collection, to be held in June that yr in reminiscence of British pupil Tom Hurndall, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza in 2003.
Liberty Investigates obtained paperwork, together with emails between Horus and college employees and a replica of the evaluation Horus offered. Collectively, these present that on April 6, 2023, MMU requested Horus to conduct a secret counter-terror “menace evaluation” on the 70-year-old Palestine research scholar.
The UK’s 2015 Counter-Terrorism and Safety Act requires universities to think about the chance of exterior audio system expressing “extremist” views, which may threat drawing folks into terrorism. This requirement falls underneath the UK authorities’s Stop counter-terror programme, and is the justification MMU gives for its actions. Nonetheless, Amnesty Worldwide and a number of other different rights teams have criticised the Stop programme for disproportionately focusing on Muslims and missing transparency.
The San Francisco State educational was as a consequence of ship a chat entitled “75 Years of Nakba, Sumoud and Solidarity: Honouring Tom Hurndall – Palestinian Martyr”. She stated: “I used to be very blissful to talk … it’s actually vital to honour individuals who have given their lives expressing solidarity with Palestine”.
Abdulhadi stated she was shocked when she heard in regards to the menace evaluation about her – additionally from Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates: “You’re alleged to be harmless till confirmed responsible … however they really made an assumption of guilt and began investigating me due to my scholarship”.
She added: “What am I supposed to review and educate about to keep away from this unwarranted, unfair and unjust scrutiny and surveillance?”
Horus offered the college with a six-page report, through which it assessed her social media use in addition to varied allegations made in opposition to her by pro-Israel teams, on Could 3, 2023. Abdulhadi has been capable of receive a replica of it utilizing UK private knowledge legal guidelines.
It included reference to 2014 allegations of antisemitism in opposition to her, which had been dismissed as meritless by her California college and the California state controller, in addition to additional allegations made in 2017, which had been dismissed by a federal choose as missing proof.
An e-mail between senior college officers, seen by Al Jazeera, exhibits that MMU finally allowed the lecture collection occasion to go forward on June 26 2023, within the Manton Constructing of MMU with “an acceptable safety presence”. The college determined that there didn’t “appear to be any proof to recommend [she] has been concerned in teams which might be proscribed within the UK”, and after Horus assessed there was a “average” threat of protest on the lecture which was “unlikely to be violent”.
One other e-mail between senior MMU employees the next yr said the college had “commissioned Horus to do the due diligence on the speaker” for a special occasion, the main points of which had been redacted from the copy seen by Al Jazeera. The college declined to substantiate if that was associated to the next years’ memorial lecture, whose speaker was additionally Palestinian.
A spokesman for MMU instructed Al Jazeera: “To make sure the security of our neighborhood and exterior audio system, we routinely undertake background checks and assessments forward of occasions to establish any potential dangers and inform any essential safety”.
Individually, the College of Manchester – a special college in the identical metropolis – confirmed to Al Jazeera that, since July 2023, it has commissioned Horus to conduct related experiences on two visitor audio system coming to debate “geopolitical points”. The college refused to reveal the audio system’ identities or verify whether or not they had been Palestinian or held pro-Palestinian views.
Inside emails from College of Bristol employees to Horus reveal the establishment has paid a minimum of 8,700 kilos ($11,530) for a “bespoke” alert service overlaying “something associated to proposed pupil protest [and] encompassing all protest exercise throughout the town” since Could 2024.
The college offered the agency with an inventory of teams to observe, which it redacted, citing private knowledge. It additionally disclosed an e-mail employees subsequently despatched to Horus, with the topic line “pro-Palestine protests”, asking for six animal rights teams to be included.
A College of Bristol spokesperson stated the agency gathers “publicly accessible info on any protest exercise by any group within the metropolis that might doubtlessly have an effect on the security of our college neighborhood”. They added: “It helps us to make knowledgeable choices on the place our safety employees could also be wanted to supply assist and if info must be conveyed to college students and employees.”
A report by the European Authorized Help Centre revealed in February this yr discovered that teachers and college students had been extra more likely to face repression for his or her pro-Palestine views than every other group in Britain.
Gina Romero, the UN particular rapporteur for freedom of peaceable meeting and of affiliation, stated this “disturbing” surveillance by Horus has contributed to a “state of terror” she has witnessed amongst UK pupil activists.
She stated: “Most college students I’ve reached out to are experiencing psychological trauma, psychological exhaustion, and burnout […] a lot of them are leaving activism altogether”.
An everyday media commentator, Horus’s Colonel Collins was requested by Belfast newspaper Information Letter in January 2024 why the Israel-Gaza battle had sparked such widespread protest compared to different wars.
On the time, South Africa had simply lodged its case on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, the place the loss of life toll had reached round 20,000 folks, in accordance with figures from the Gaza Well being Ministry, which have since been accepted as “broadly correct” by Israel. They at the moment stand at above 70,000.
However the former SAS soldier, himself from Northern Eire, had a special take.
“What we’re seeing actually is a Russian/Iranian orchestrated media marketing campaign which is being willingly swallowed by the West,” he instructed Information Letter.
Two months earlier, he had instructed the Categorical newspaper that pro-Palestine protesters who “misbehave” ought to “face the complete penalties of the regulation … and people people who find themselves not from this nation must be deported till they’ll by no means come again”.
This text was produced as a part of the Bertha Problem Fellowship. Further reporting by Zac Larkham and Joe Creffield.
