The Supreme Court on Monday allowed WhatsApp, owned by Facebook (now known as Meta), to pursue a lawsuit against the NSO Group, the Israeli cyberintelligence company responsible for the “Pegasus” spyware exploit that enabled the surveillance of thousands of journalists and activists around the world.
The NSO Group attempted to argue that it was immune to prosecution due to its services being used by foreign governments. The Biden administration urged the court to reject this argument, pointing out that the U.S. State Department has never given diplomatic immunity to a private company acting as an agent of a foreign government.
A spokesperson for Facebook welcomed the court’s decision.
“NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Facebook said. “We firmly believe that their operations violate U.S. law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations.”
The Pegasus program, which enabled the remote surveillance of smartphones, was allegedly one of the most successful and wide reaching in the world, with reportedly thousands of journalists and activists infected through WhatsApp alone.
In 2021, the Washington Post revealed a list of phone numbers linked to the Pegasus project that included heads of state and prime ministers.
The Post reported that the list included:
Three sitting presidents, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Iraq’s Barham Salih and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa. Three current prime ministers, Pakistan’s Imran Khan, Egypt’s Mostafa Madbouly and Morocco’s Saad-Eddine El Othmani.
Seven former prime ministers, who according to time stamps on the list were placed there while they were still in office: Yemen’s Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, Lebanon’s Saad Hariri, Uganda’s Ruhakana Rugunda, France’s Édouard Philippe, Kazakhstan’s Bakitzhan Sagintayev, Algeria’s Noureddine Bedoui and Belgium’s Charles Michel.
And one king: Morocco’s Mohammed VI.
Spain has also said that the phones of its Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, and its Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, had their phones infected with Pegasus spyware.
The NSO Group has defended its activities in court and in the press, arguing that its technology is used to catch terrorists, pedophiles, and criminals.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.