Government paid Vote Leave AI firm to analyse UK citizens’ tweets

Faculty, linked to senior Tories, hired to collect tweets as part of coronavirus-related contract

Privacy campaigners have expressed alarm after the government revealed it had hired an artificial intelligence firm to collect and analyse the tweets of UK citizens as part of a coronavirus-related contract.

Faculty, which was hired by Dominic Cummings to work for the Vote Leave campaign and counts two current and former Conservative ministers among its shareholders, was paid 400,000 by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for the work, according to a copy of the contract published online.