Supreme Court allows WhatsApp lawsuit over ‘Pegasus’ spyware to move forward

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Meta to file a lawsuit alleging that an Israeli company illegally accessed WhatsApp’s servers by installing spyware on users’ devices.

The judges rejected NSO Group Technologies’ appeal, arguing that it was immune from suit because it was acting on behalf of unidentified foreign governments. Meta owns the messaging platform WhatsApp, as well as the social networking sites Facebook and Instagram. The case will now move forward in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2019, alleges that NSO violated various laws, including the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, when it installed «Pegasus» spyware. Meta claims that NSO illegally accessed WhatsApp servers in early 2019, allowing it to monitor 1,400 people, including journalists and human rights activists.

NSO said in court documents that it works on behalf of foreign governments, which it did not identify, and that the Pegasus software is a tool used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

«Some WhatsApp users are violent criminals and terrorists who exploit the software’s encryption to avoid detection,» the company’s lawyers wrote.

In 2020, the trial judge denied NSO’s request for a form of immunity that protects foreign officials acting in their official capacity. The San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit also ruled against NSO.

The Biden administration, which was asked by the court in June to weigh in on the case, said in a brief that there was no need for the judges to hear it. Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that, among other things, NSO does not meet the normal criteria for a state entity that can claim immunity. In fact, she pointed out, no foreign government has told the State Department that NSO was acting on her behalf.

By Mitchell G. Patton

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