Human rights organizations also join WhatsApp case against NSO Group

A growing group of human rights organizations are behind Facebook in a lawsuit against the Israeli espionage company NSO Group. The authorities say NSO violates human rights by selling malicious software.

These are organizations from all over the world, writes Reuters news agency. These include Amnesty International and organizations that stand up for freedom of the press. They support a case that Facebook’s subsidiary WhatsApp filed against the NSO Group last year. That case revolved around the Pegasus spyware that specifically targeted WhatsApp and affected 1,400 users. NSO Group made and sold the malware.

The organizations that have now joined the lawsuit through an amicus curiae are Amesty International, the Internet Freedom Foundation of India, Paradigm Initiative, Privacy International, Reporters Without Borders and the Mexican R3D. Amnesty International lost another lawsuit against the organization this year. The details of the additional charge are not public, but the organizations are said to support Facebook and WhatsApp in the lawsuit.

Earlier this week, several tech companies also expressed their support for the legal battle. Google and Microsoft, among others, wrote an amicus curiae. This means that a party that is not involved in the lawsuit still wants to interfere. It is not yet known how this will happen. The companies and now the human rights organizations can submit evidence against NSO, or testify against it. It is up to the judge to determine what the impact on the case could be.