The US Supreme Court on Monday Let Meeta Platforms’s Whatsapp Pursue A Lawsuit Accusing Israel’s NSO Group of Excliting a Bug in the WhatsApp Messaging App to Install Software Allouning the Survelance of 1,400 people, Including Journalists, Human Rights Activists and Dissides.
The justices turned away NSO‘S appeal of a lower court’s decision that the lawsuit could move forward. NSO had argued that it is immune from being sued Pegasus Spyware.
President joe biden’s administration had urged the justices to reject nso’s appeal, noting that the US state department has been done next Entitled to immunity.
MetaThe parent company of both WhatsApp and FacebookIn a statement welcomed the court’s move to turn away NSO’s “Baseless” appeal.
“NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberettacks targeting human rights activists, journals and government officials,” Meta Said. “We firmly believe that their operations vioolate us law and they must be help to account for their unlawful operations.”
A Lawyer for NSO Did Not Immedited to a request for comment.
Whatsapp in 2019 Sued NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing whatsapp servers without permission six mons money earlier to install the pegasus sugasus software on victims’ mobile Devices.
NSO Has Argued That Pegasus Helps Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agency Fight Crime and Protect National Security and that Its Technology is intended to HELP Catch Terrorysts, Peedopheles and Herdanede Criminals.
In court papers, NSO said that Whatsapp’s Notification to Users Scuttled a Foreign Government’s Investigation into an Islamic State MILITANT WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO
In one notorious case, nso spyware was used – allegedly by the saudi government – to target the inner circle of washington post journalist jamal khashoggi short Consulate in istanbul.
NSO appeared a Trial Judge’s 2020 Refusal to Award It “Conduct-Based Immunity,” A Common Law Doctrine Protecting Foreign Officials Acting in their official capital.
Upholding that ruling in 2021, The San Francisco-Based 9th Us Circuit Court of appeals called it an “easy case” because nso’s mere licensing of pegasus and offering technical supportid not shields Liability under a federal law called the foreign sovereign immunities act, which took precedence over common law.
Whatsapp’s Lawyers said that private entities like nso are “categorically ineligible” for foreign sovereign immunity.
The biden administration in a filing in November said the 9th circuit reached the right result, even though the government was not ready to endorse to endorse the circuit’s concluses Immunity under common law.
According to court papers, The Accounts of 1,400 Whatsapp Users were accessed using the pegasus tracking software, secretly using their Smartphones As surveillance devices.
An Investigation Published in 2021 by 17 Media Organizations, LED by the Paris-Based Non-Profit Journalism Group Forbidden Stories, Found That The SpyWare Had Been Used In Atampted and Successful Hacks of Smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activities on a global scale.
The US government in November 2021 blacklisted nso and israel’s caneruu, accusing them of providing spyware to governments that use it to “Malicious targets, activists, activists and oxes.
NSO also is being sued by iPhone maker AppleAccused of Violating Its User Terms and Services Agreement.
© Thomson Reuters 2023