TechDigits

Tech news
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Top US court seeks Biden input on lawsuit against Israel’s NSO

Top US court seeks Biden input on lawsuit against Israel’s NSO

Supreme Court asks Justice Department to say whether spyware firm is immune from WhatsApp lawsuit over alleged hacking.

The United States Supreme Court wants the administration of President Joe Biden to weigh in on whether NSO Group has sovereign immunity from civil litigation in US courts to assess whether a lawsuit by WhatsApp against the Israeli spyware company can proceed.

NSO Group’s lawyers had argued that because the company’s product is used by foreign governments and law enforcement agencies, the firm is protected from civil lawsuits on US soil.

Last November, a US Court of Appeals dismissed NSO Group’s push to assert legal immunity, but on Monday the top US court asked the US Department of Justice to “file a brief in this case expressing the views of the United States”.

WhatsApp – owned by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) – is suing NSO Group over the alleged targeting of its servers in California with malware to gain unauthorised access to approximately 1,400 mobile devices in violation of US state and federal law.

The Israeli firm has sparked outrage from rights groups after a 2021 investigation by international media outlets revealed its Pegasus spyware was used by security forces and authoritarian governments in several countries.




Last year, the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to allow WhatsApp’s lawsuit to proceed, stressing that NSO Group does not qualify for sovereign immunity even if its clients are foreign government agencies.

NSO claims that it should enjoy the immunity extended to sovereigns because it provides technology used for law-enforcement purposes and law enforcement is an inherently sovereign function,” Judge Danielle Forrest, who was appointed by ex-President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling.

“Whatever NSO’s government customers do with its technology and services does not render NSO an ‘agency or instrumentality of a foreign state,’ as Congress has defined that term. Thus, NSO is not entitled to the protection of foreign sovereign immunity.”

NSO Group appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. In a May filing to the top court, the firm’s lawyers called the appeals judges’ decision “dangerously wrong”.

“Precluding private entities from seeking common-law conduct-based immunity will not merely hinder foreign governments from contracting with private entities,” NSO Group’s lawyers wrote.

“It also will impede the United States’ ability to protect its national security, because the government relies heavily on private contractors to provide the technology and expertise necessary to defend the nation against foreign and domestic threats.”

In the original legal complaint, WhatsApp accused the Israeli firm of breaching its terms of service and undermining the messaging platform’s “reputation, public trust and goodwill” with hacking activities.

Last year, the Biden administration sanctioned NSO Group – adding it to the “Entity List” of companies considered to be engaged in activities contrary to US foreign policy and national security – after accusing it of enabling “transnational repression” with its spyware.

WhatsApp’s lawyers cited the sanctions in a filing to the Supreme Court earlier this year, urging the justices to disregard the Israeli firm’s request for reviewing the lower court’s decision.

“The United States has determined that NSO’s spyware activities — the very type of activities for which NSO seeks immunity — are contrary to US national-security and foreign-policy interests, and has therefore added NSO to its Entity List restricting the export, reexport, and transfer of covered entities’ items,” WhatsApp’s lawyers wrote.

“Even if private entities were eligible for common-law foreign sovereign immunity (they are not), a company on the Entity List would have no plausible claim to such immunity.”




NSO Group has regularly denied allegations of enabling human rights abuses, saying that its spyware, which is licenced by the Israeli government, is meant to track criminals and “terrorists”.

Last year, it also dismissed the findings of the investigation into Pegasus, which was based on a major data leak, as “uncorroborated theories”.

But rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused the group of flouting its “human rights responsibilities”, calling on the Israeli government to revoke the firm’s permits.

Newsletter

Related Articles

TechDigits
0:00
0:00
Close
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
Melinda French Gates Advocates for Increased Female Representation in AI to Prevent Bias
Snapchat+ gains 4 million paying subscribers in its first year
Apple Makes History as the First Public Company Valued at $3 Trillion
Elon Musk Implements Twitter Limits to Tackle Data Scraping, but Faces Criticism for Technical Misunderstanding
EU and UK's Slow Electric Vehicle Adoption Raises Questions About the Transition to Green Mobility
Top Companies Express Concerns Over Europe's Proposed AI Law, Citing Competitiveness and Investment Risks
Meta Unveils Insights on AI Usage in Facebook and Instagram, Amid Growing Calls for Transparency
Crypto Scams Against Seniors Soar by 78% in 2022, Experts Urge Vigilance
The End of an Era: National Geographic Dismisses Last of Its Staff Writers
Shield Your Wallet: The Perils of Wireless Credit Card Theft
Harvard Scientist Who Studies Honesty Accused Of Data Fraud, Put On Leave
Putting an End to the Subscription Snare: The Battle Against Unwitting Commitments
The Legal Perils of AI: Lawyer Faces Sanctions for Relying on Fictional Cases Generated by Chatbot
ChatGPT’s "Grandma Exploit": Ingenious Hack Exposes Loophole in AI, Generates Free Software Codes
The Disney Downturn: A Near Billion-Dollar Box Office Blow for the House of Mouse
A Digital Showdown: Canada Challenges Tech Giants with The Online News Act, Meta Strikes Back
Distress in the Depths: Submersible and Passengers Missing in Titanic Wreckage Expedition
Mark Zuckerberg stealing another idea: Twitter
European Union's AI Regulations Risk Self-Sabotage, Cautions smart and brave Venture Capitalist Joe Lonsdale
Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that rich venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in
Chinese car exports surge
Reddit Blackout: Thousands of Communities Protest "Ludicrous" Pricing Changes
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
×