Have you ever heard of ‘DJ Audits’, ‘Auditing Britain’ or ‘PJ Audits’? If not, then that’s perhaps not particularly surprising. The videos that these content creators post on YouTube regularly receive hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of views, and are part of a growing trend within the UK of online ‘auditing’ videos.
This is not auditing in the traditional sense that we would understand it; these individuals have no formal authority or regulatory power. Rather, it’s part of a trend that started in the US, once referred to as ‘First Amendment audits’. These were originally focused on a theoretical agenda of testing constitutional rights to educate members of the public and hold federal authorities to account. Over time however, the trend has veered more towards the targeting of private businesses, both large and small.
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The practice is generally characterised by an ‘auditor’ attending some form of industrial site and filming the activities going on within, generally while stood on public property, often with the aid of a drone. Such auditors are well aware that their activity is likely to cause concern and that they are likely to be challenged about what they’re doing and why – and this is really the point. The intention is usually to produce a heated or entertainment-worthy exchange with employees or representatives of the organisation, or with any attending police officers, which will garner a lot of attention when uploaded to social media channels.
The true aim of such auditors is often to goad victims into a confrontational exchange, seeking to take advantage of the fact that the auditor is well versed with the legal position concerning their right to film (and other legal rights such as data protection law), in circumstances where representatives of the company seeking to challenge them are perhaps not so well informed.
You might think that such auditors would concentrate on large multinationals and household names, however smaller organisations will often make for richer pickings, as they are often less well prepared and more likely to goaded into reacting.
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We at Ashfords are aware of one auditor who targeted a range of businesses in Devon and Cornwall earlier this year, but also regularly posts videos from locations in towns and cities right across the UK. One of the videos, relating to a local manufacturer, involved the auditor managing to goad staff into engaging in an adversarial debate. That video has been viewed over 80,000 times and has in excess of 800 comments attached where individuals have posted extremely unpleasant and upsetting personal comments about the employees seen in the footage. People have also posted false and ill-informed criticisms about the business.
The name and address of the business were prominently listed on the video. This meant that, for a number of weeks afterwards, if the name of the business was typed into Google, the video was one of the first search results that appeared.
In a very general sense, members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph if they’re stood in a public place, even if they’re filming private property. Generally, the police has no power to stop individuals filming or taking photographs save in very limited circumstances. More often than not, the auditor has the law on their side, and knows precisely what they can or can’t do.
Seeking to actively challenge and confront such an individual therefore plays into their hands, and commonly results in negative publicity and embarrassment for the business. So, what should organisations do to guard against this threat?
As the saying goes, ‘forewarned is forearmed’, so the first thing organisations should do is ensure that staff are fully aware of the existence of this practice and what the organisation expects them to do, if and when one of these individuals turn up.
The key will be to present a polite, measured and professional response while not overstepping bounds or being goaded into a heated or aggressive – and thus entertainment-worthy – dispute.
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A sensible course of action would be to formulate a policy for staff that highlights the practice and the risks associated with it, and which gives clear guidance around the underlying legal position and around the process and approach to be followed if one of these individuals turns up at the gates.
If properly constructed, such a policy should ensure that if staff follow the process laid out, then any video taken by the auditor is unlikely to see the light of day online, because it will be so boring that no one would want to watch or comment on it.
By James Collings, partner in the employment team at Ashfords
