BT was accused of taking a “draconian and controlling attitude towards social media” by CWU members during a lively debate on the company’s social media policy.

Delegates at the union’s telecoms and financial services conference in Bournemouth unanimously passed a motion yesterday that said BT was intruding “into the private lives of employees” with its “increasingly dictatorial” approach to social media use.

The motion noted that the Human Rights Act provided the “right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence” and that it was “worrying” that BT employees had been “effectively gagged.”