Phones of 22 Indian people, who were on a list of hundreds, were checked and 7 had been infected with NSO malware; the list included top opposition politicians
Washington Post
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the India chapter of the Pegasus Project's forensic push, and it closes a loop opened in November 2019, when WhatsApp told Delhi in writing that 121 of its users in India were targeted with NSO spyware, including activists, journalists, and civil rights lawyers. What was then an allegation from one platform is now forensic fact: Amnesty-checked phones belonging to people on the leaked targeting list, including top opposition politicians, show confirmed Pegasus infections.
Indian opposition figures on the list move from suspecting surveillance to holding forensic evidence, shifting the political fight onto the government to explain how its critics' phones were infected with a state-grade tool sold only to governments.
NSO Group faces its most damaging publicity yet in a market — India — where its client relationships were never officially acknowledged; the company's deniability erodes as each national list produces confirmed infections.
Second-order effects
WhatsApp's 2019 targeting letter is retroactively vindicated, strengthening the platform's legal position against NSO and pressuring other messaging providers to publish their own spyware-abuse disclosures.
Apple is forced into the spotlight because the confirmed infections concentrate on iPhones, making device security — not just app-layer protection like WhatsApp's — the new benchmark for resisting state spyware.
Third-order effects
If forensic confirmation keeps outpacing official explanations across countries, commercial spyware heads toward export-control-style regulation and mandatory disclosure regimes, with vendors' government clients unable to claim they did not know what the tools were used for.
Surveillance becomes a domestic-politics issue rather than a purely national-security one, as opposition parties in targeted democracies build coalitions around spyware oversight.
The trend: Commercial spyware is being dragged from secret procurement into public accountability, with independent forensic labs turning leaked target lists into country-by-country evidence of abuse.
Alarming! “A powerful surveillance tool licensed only to governments was used to infiltrate mobile phones belonging to at least seven people in India and was active on some of their devices as recently as this month.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
It also said that “any interception... is done as per due process of law.” It did not respond to our question asking whether any arm of the government has ever been an NSO client. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
So basically before the 2019 elections, the BJP govt potentially surveilled phones belonging to the main opposition leaders and their aides, journalists, civil society activists AND an election commissioner!!! If this isn't subversion of electoral democracy, what is? https://twit…
“The records included at least one number once used by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as hundreds of others in the country. Khan did not respond to a request for comment.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
This thread from @jslaternyc has many of the names on “the list” including Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Kishor, Ashok Lavasa, PS Patel and new IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw... https://twitter.com/...
Virologist Gagandeep Kang struggled to imagine why she would be deemed a target of surveillance. “I lead a very, very boring life,” she said. https://twitter.com/...
Well this is what most people predicted or thought was going on— this is also just the tip of the iceberg. What we do not know is this — the extent to which @narendramodi has enabled absolute use of un fretted power and dissolved all semblance of accountability. https://twitter.c…
This is definitely intriguing. Also, it may be imprudent to assume that all Indians were exclusively targeted by Indian agencies. Many other govts or spy agencies might benefit from obtaining kompromat on many among those named in these lists. This merits deeper investigation. ht…
The biggest surprise is the name of Gagandeep Kang. She's among India's foremost virology/vaccinology experts, a member of the Royal Society. Who'd want to eavesdrop on her, and why... https://twitter.com/...
How extensively was Pegasus spyware used in the world's largest democracy? We found forensic evidence that it was active on Indian phones as recently as *last week*. Read more here and below... 1/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
The spyware is sold to governments to fight terrorism. In India, it was used to hack journalists & others... The confirmed infections of seven phones represent a tiny fraction of what may be a vast surveillance net in Modi's India... #BharatiyaJasoosParty https://www.washingtonpo…
One part of the Government of India was using Pegasus against not only Indian citizens, but against other parts of the GoI and against democratically elected members of Parliament—both opposition and within the BJP! The question is which part of the GoI and on whose authority. ht…
BREAKING: More names in the list out now. @RahulGandhi, his aides and friends; Ashok Lavasa, key election official considered an obstacle to the ruling party; @PrashantKishor and members of the family of the woman who accused CJI Gogoi of sexual harassment https://www.washingtonp…
So he molested a woman, went after her family once she protested, got her brother fired, and now we know- got the government to buy Israeli software and snoop on her family. https://twitter.com/...
“Those who did [the hacking] were looking to take undue advantage of their position of power... It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished.” https://t.co/85DTF6cRwB
One of the most shocking things we found in India: A woman accuses the country's most senior judge of sexual harassment. Two days after she goes public, her phone number and those of several family members are identified as candidates for surveillance https://www.theguardian.com/…