WhatsApp’s original meta allowed to pursue lawsuit against NSO Team for installing Pegasus malware

The US Supreme Court on Monday allowed Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp to pursue a lawsuit accusing Israel’s NSO Corporation of exploiting a bug in the messaging app WhatsApp to install spyware that would allow surveillance of 1,400 people. , including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.

The judges turned their backs NSOappeal the decision of the lower court that the case may continue. NSO has argued that it was not sued because it was acting as an agent for unspecified foreign governments when it installed horse spyware.

The administration of President Joe Biden has urged the judges to dismiss the NSO’s appeal, noting that the US State Department has never previously recognized a private entity acting as an agent of a country. Foreigners enjoy immunity.

metaparent company of both WhatsApp and Facebookin a statement welcoming the court’s move to dismiss the “baseless” appeal by the NSO.

“NSO spyware has enabled cyberattacks against human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Meta said. “We firmly believe that their activities violate US law and that they should be held accountable for their illegal activities.”

An attorney for NSO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WhatsApp in 2019 sued NSO seeking injunction and damages, accusing them of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install Pegasus software on victims’ mobile equipment.

NSO has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security, and its technology is intended to help catch terrorists, pedophiles and hardened criminals. .

In court papers, NSO said that WhatsApp’s notice to users derailed a foreign government investigation into an Islamic State fighter who was using the app to plan attacks.

In one infamous case, NSO spyware was used – allegedly by the Saudi government – to target the inner circle of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi shortly before he was murdered in Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul.

NSO has appealed a 2020 trial judge’s refusal to grant them “conduct-based immunity,” a common law doctrine that protects foreign officials acting in their official capacity.

Upholding that ruling in 2021, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco called it an “easy case” because the fact that NSO only licensed Pegasus and provided technical assistance did not protects it from liability under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, which takes precedence over common law.

WhatsApp’s lawyers say that private organizations like the NSO are “not expressly eligible” for foreign sovereign immunity.

The Biden administration in a November filing said District 9 had reached an appropriate outcome, although the government was not yet ready to endorse the district court’s conclusion that the FSIA outright forfeit any form of immunity. except by common law.

According to court documents, the accounts of 1,400 WhatsApp users were accessed using Pegasus tracking software, secretly using their accounts. smartphone as monitoring devices.

An investigation published in 2021 by 17 media organizations, led by the Paris-based nonprofit press group Forbidden Stories, found that this spyware was used in attempted and successful attacks on the smartphones of journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.

The US government in November 2021 blacklisted Israel’s NSO and Candiru, accusing them of providing spyware to governments that use it to “maliciously target” investors journalists, activists and others.

NSO is also being sued by Iphone producer Appleallegedly violated the terms of service and terms of service.

© Thomson Reuters 2023