A school used artificial intelligence to censor books in its library including George Orwell’s 1984 and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, campaigners claim.
An investigation by Index on Censorship found a secondary school in Greater Manchester earmarked almost 200 books for removal from its library that were deemed ‘inappropriate’.
These also included Michelle Obama‘s autobiography, Becoming and The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.
The charity, which campaigns for free expression, says the school got AI to generate summaries justifying why each book was not suitable for pupils.
Incredibly, the school librarian was also put under a ‘safeguarding’ investigation – leading to her resignation – for allowing the books in the library.
Index said it would not reveal the name of the librarian or the school, due to her being vulnerable.
Although many of the books were initially removed, it is not known if all of those on the list remain banned from the library.
The case was exposed this week by the school librarian, who spoke to the organisation on condition of her anonymity.
She said the purge began in November 2025, when the headteacher demanded the removal of Laura Bates’ nonfiction title Men Who Hate Women, which is an exposé of incel culture.
The head thought the book was inappropriate due to ‘exposure of misogynistic beliefs’, even though it was kept in a special section for older pupils.
Off the back of this incident, the school then launched an ‘investigation’ into the librarian, and closed the library as a ‘temporary safeguarding measure’.
She was then asked to remove any book that was ‘not written for children’, had ‘themes that could be upsetting to children’ and those that were ‘inappropriate or constitute a safeguarding risk’.
She told Index: ‘I was absolutely gobsmacked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.’
The school also reported her to the council as a safeguarding risk due to introducing ‘inappropriate’ books – and there was also a threat of gross misconduct proceedings.
The school shared with her a list of 193 books which it deemed might be inappropriate, seen by Index.
Index said it had seen another document in which the school admitted the reasons given for the censorship had been written by AI.
Hellbound and Down 