NSO Group's Pegasus spyware was used by governments to spy on journalists, activists, and political opponents

When a Mexican journalist's phone went dark in 2017, she assumed it was a technical glitch. It wasn't. What she didn't know was that her device had become a window into her entire life—her communications, her location, her meetings with sources—all accessible to someone else without her knowledge or consent.

This scenario wasn't isolated. Between 2016 and 2021, the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group sold its Pegasus spyware to governments around the world with a simple promise: it would help them fight terrorism and crime. What actually happened was far more troubling.

The Pegasus Project, a joint investigation by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, revealed in 2021 that the spyware had been used to target over 50,000 phone numbers. The list reads like a directory of people governments wanted to silence: journalists covering corruption, human rights activists documenting abuses, and political opponents of authoritarian regimes. The targets included people close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, French President Emmanuel Macron, and reporters working in Mexico and India.

NSO Group's initial response was dismissive. The company claimed it only sold its tools to vetted government agencies for legitimate law enforcement purposes. They suggested that the Pegasus Project's findings were exaggerated or that they couldn't verify the claims. It was a familiar defense: trust us, not activists with an agenda.

But Amnesty International's forensic methodology report provided something NSO Group couldn't dismiss—technical evidence. Forensic analysis of targeted phones showed unmistakable traces of Pegasus infection. The spyware didn't just monitor calls and texts; it accessed encrypted messaging apps, email, location data, and calendar information. Once installed, it gave governments complete visibility into the private lives of their targets.