Pegasus: the US Supreme Court validates Meta's lawsuits against the spyware publisher
The lawsuit against the Israeli group NSO, at the origin of the Pegasus spyware, will continue in the United States.
AP - Sebastian Scheiner
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The Supreme Court of the United States gives the green light: the lawsuit against the Israeli group NSO, at the origin of the spyware Pegasus, will be able to continue.
NSO has been sued by Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp.
NSO had taken advantage of a security flaw in this messaging system to hack thousands of cell phones.
NSO has seized the highest American court to request the cancellation of these lawsuits, but has just been dismissed.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Sami Boukhelifa
The Israeli group NSO, and its
spyware Pegasus,
are behind the hacking of the phones of 50,000 people around the world.
In their sights, journalists, human rights activists,
opponents
, politicians and even French President Emmanuel Macron.
In 2021, a consortium of international media reveals the case.
Since then,
NSO
and its malware, sold to several countries, have been at the heart of a global scandal.
NSO's "inadmissible" arguments
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is suing NSO in an older case.
In 2019, the American social media giant realizes that the Israeli group is taking advantage of a WhatsApp security breach to penetrate its servers and install Pegasus on the phones of 1,400 users.
Sued in federal court in California, NSO seized the highest American court to request the cancellation of these proceedings.
His argument: “
NSO worked on behalf of foreign governments and should, as such, benefit from legal immunity
”.
Inadmissible, rules the Supreme Court of the United States.
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