Thread by @StefSimanowitz

1/. Gross press freedom violations revealed by #PegasusProject can’t be met with impunity

Govts & agencies who’ve spied on journalists must provide answers on this misuse of NSO technology #Pegasus #PegasusSnoopgate @amnesty @globalfreemedia @pressfreedom forbiddenstories.org/pegasus-the-ne…

2/. Journalists, MPs & human rights activists were selected as targets for surveillance by authoritarian regimes

#Pegasus is the spyware developed, marketed & licensed to govts around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group.
@citizenlab #PegasusProject

3/. In the months before he died & a year after his murder, people associated with Jamal Khashoggi, were selected for potential surveillance by clients of NSO

Hungary’s far-right govt is suspected of hacking phones of journalists & targeting owners

4/. A list of some 50,000 phone numbers of people believed to be of interest to to authoritarian govts could have been targeted by Pegasus spyware

Last year, an Israeli court rejected an attempt, supported by @amnesty, to revoke notorious spyware firm NSO Group’s export licence.

5/. #Pegasus spyware may have been used in
Azerbaijan🇦🇿
Bahrain🇧🇭
Hungary🇭🇺
India🇮🇳
Kazakhstan🇰🇿
Mexico🇲🇽
Morocco🇲🇦
Rwanda🇷🇼
Saudi Arabia🇸🇦
Togo🇹🇬
UAE🇦🇪

NSO says it doesn’t know what clients do with its spyware BUT they’re certain their tech wasn’t used in Khashoggi murder

Hmmm

6/. “The #PegasusProject revelations must act as a catalyst for change”

Before joining @amnesty, @AgnesCallamard was UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

In 2019, she led the inquiry into the assassination of #Khashoggi
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

7/. So what's the solution to an out-of-control #spyware industry?

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech, @davidakaye has some solutions, starting with a global moratorium on sale/transfer of spyware

See his 2019 report👇undocs.org/A/HRC/41/35 #PegasusProject #Pegasus

8/. What the #PegasusProject reveals is the NSO Group is really representative of a new malware market, where this is a for-profit business. They don’t care about the law, they don’t care about regulations." @Snowden
#Pegasus #PegasusSpyware #PegasusGate

9/. For 10 years the Israeli surveillance company NSO has been helping govts steal secrets

NSO claim #Pegasus is untraceable

A small group of digital detectives proved them wrong.
#PegasusProject @amnesty @FbdnStories @guardian @lemondefr @citizenlab theguardian.com/news/audio/202…

10/. The UK & US are also on the list of 45 countries where #Pegasus infections have been detected

Is it not more than likely that the NSA & GCHQ deploy similar or better spyware in their domestic & foreign surveillance?

If so, who are they targeting & is it being done legally?

11/. My colleagues at @AmnestyTech have published a toolkit for #PegasusProject to help you scan your iPhone & Android devices for evidence of NSO's #Pegasus spyware targeting your phone

The Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) is easy to use
github.com/mvt-project/mvt

Please share!

12/. The #PegasusProject shows that abuse of powerful surveillance technology "is systematic & global” @amnesty’s @AgnesCallamard

The phone numbers for 14 heads of state, including @EmmanuelMacron @ImranKhanPTI & @CyrilRamaphosa, were potentially targeted

13/. In August 2018, we discovered that an @amnesty colleague & several Saudi human rights activists, had been targeted with #Pegasus software

Did the Israelis - who sold the spyware to foreign govts - retain the ability to keep tabs on how it was used?

14/. “NSO's claim that it’s ‘technologically impossible’ to spy on US phone numbers is a bald-faced lie: an exploit that works against Macron's iPhone will work on Biden's iPhone. Any code written to prohibit targeting a country can be unwritten.” @Snowden

15/. UK & US intelligence services also spy on journalists, activists etc

In 2003, the NSA (& GCHQ?) eavesdropped on UN Security Council delegations in their attempt to force a 2nd Resolution to give a fig-leaf of legitimacy for their illegal war on Iraq.

16/. Interestingly #Pegasus spyware doesn’t seem to have been used to target far-right groups, KKK, QAnon, ISIS etc

In the UK, secretive forces like the 77th Brigade & SGMI, surveil human rights activists & infiltrate the media, judiciary, politics & NGOs wired.co.uk/article/inside…

17/. Is nothing sacred?

The phone numbers of the Dalai Lama's top advisers are believed to have been selected as those of people of interest by govt clients of NSO Group

Analysis indicates Indian govt was selecting these #Pegasus targets. #PegasusProject
theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/…

18/. Just to be clear, @amnesty categorically stands by the findings of the #PegasusProject

The data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s #Pegasus spyware

False rumours being pushed on social media to try & distract

will

not

work!

19/. Q: How can I find out if I’m being watched & recorded?

A: You are. Even if you're not doing anything wrong. Even if it’s not #Pegasus. Even if you never find out

“Sometimes the scandal isn’t what law was broken, but what the law allows” @Snowden

20/. #BREAKING: "Uncovering the Iceberg"

@amnesty report reveals devastating impact of the poorly regulated spyware industry on human rights worldwide

#PegasusProject offers a window on a dangerous industry that operates on the edges of legality #Pegasus amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

21/. It is a huge privilege & immense responsibility working for @amnesty

To understand why, just look at the #PegasusProject done by my fearless @AmnestyTech colleagues (et al.)

Amnesty may be 60 years old, but we still kick ass!

Very proud! #Pegasus

22/. Your phone rings. Within seconds, it’s infected with spyware that is tracking everything you do

Whilst technology has transformed the scope of surveillance, for activists, it was ever thus

If you are an effective campaigner, govts will monitor you.

23/. “The greatest achievement of a general is to subdue the enemy without fighting” (Sun Tzu, 540 BC)

In the Old Testament, Moses sent spies into Canaan

In Elizabethan England, Walsingham had a network of spies

‘Radicals’ from Wat Tyler to Henry Hunt have always been targeted

24/. It may be tempting to frame this as “a battle btw democracies & autocracies” BUT the problem of malign surveillance is inseparable from the wider assaults on our privacy that are intrinsic to our daily online life.
#Pegasus #PegasusProject @NewYorker
newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

25/. “My work to expose the crimes of the Saudi regime led to a hacking attempt on my phone. Today, I am overwhelmed by feelings of vulnerability & intrusion.”

Analyst @MadawiDr, on how #PegasusProject findings have affected her. #Pegasus @declassifiedUK
middleeasteye.net/opinion/pegasu…

26/. Alarmed by #PegasusProject revelations that #Pegasus has been used to facilitate worldwide human rights violations on a mass scale, 146 NGOs call on states to implement an immediate moratorium on the sale, transfer & use of surveillance technology
amnesty.org/en/documents/d…

27/. “So, what are we to make of #Pegasus?

To dismiss it as a new technological iteration of an age-old game in which rulers have always spied on us would be a serious mistake

This is no ordinary spying
Our mobile phones are our most intimate selves.” theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

28/. #BREAKING: #Pegasus spyware owner, Novalpina, is to be liquidated

In a move that’s yet to be made public, the London-HQed private equity firm is to be wound up after a dispute between its 3 principals & controversy over its ownership of the NSO Group news.sky.com/story/pegasus-…

29/. “Power is sucked out of democratic structures & relocated to a place where it can’t be challenged: an inner circle defended from opposition by a forcefield of money & patronage, a compliant judiciary & a grovelling media.”
@GeorgeMonbiot on #Pegasus
google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg…

30/. This article👆is about the “the ever more sophisticated tools of autocratic power used in nominal democracies”

Surveillance tools
Dark ads on social media
Thinktanks using dark money
Voter suppression
Culture wars

The country @GeorgeMonbiot uses as his exemplar?

Britain!

31/. Two days ago, in an extraordinary bid to discredit the #PegasusProject, @Europol’s director & NY’s district attorney, wrote an OpEd entitled “The last refuge of the criminal: Encrypted smartphones”!

Today, the team who exposed the #Pegasus respond👇
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.poli…

32/ #Pegasus can be installed in a targeted phone with just a missed call

“An missile delivering a payload of invisible spyware capable of dismantling democracies & atomising societies without the bother of red tape – no warrants, no oversight, no regulation whatsoever” (A. Roy)

33/. #Pegasus is just one of many spyware products

NSO is one of many cyber warfare firms

Cellebrite sells to UAE, Turkey, Russia & Saudi Arabia

Candiru - named after the Amazonian fish that lodges itself in the penis - hacks Microsoft & Google products
citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hookin…

34/. Perhaps the most scary firm is #Palantir

Set-up with CIA funding, #Palantir rprdly taught #CambridgeAnalytica how to scrape data

Worryingly, they are running the data stores for the NHS in the UK & the HHS in the US

Could this be “bio-intrusive surveillance capitalism”?

35/. Today, @BylineTimes & @allthecitizens reveal #Palantir were awarded UK public sector contracts worth £100m+

NHS data collected may be “anonymised” but
can easily be reversed-engineered

Since the data controllers are the govt a #DataGrab is possible
bylinetimes.com/2021/07/30/rev…

36/. Could the #DataGrab ALREADY have been underway for 10 months?

The deadline for opting out of sharing health data was 30 Sept 2020...& out was “not possible during a pandemic”

The NHS Data Store is run by #Palantir & #FacultyAI

Can they access population-wide genomic data?

37/. The #DataGrab finally hit the news last month, but this was about GP patient data & 10 MONTHS after the 1st deadline passed to “opt out” of NHS patient data sharing

Data of 65m Britons “for life science research” is being advertised to Pharma companies by the Dept of Trade.

38/. We know that Big Tech firms mine our data for commercial & national security purposes, but the new frontier lies not in our consumer behaviour, but in our biological selves

Population-wide genomic data would offer huge benefits...It would also give govts unprecedented power

39/. “You ask for forgiveness not permission” (Peter Thiel, Palantir)

Genomics has the capacity to reshape humans & transform society

Every futurist will tell you this is the way the world is going...but how to achieve this as quickly as possible?

40/. “We’ve arranged a society based on science & technology, in which nobody understands anything about science & technology

This combustible mixture of ignorance & power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces”
(Carl Sagan)

That time is now!

41/. Public investors in Novalpina, the private equity firm that owns a majority stake in the Israeli spyware company, NSO Group, are in talks to transfer management of that fund to Berkeley Research Group, a US consulting firm. #Pegasus #PegasusProject #PegasusSpyware @Snowden

42/. French intelligence investigators confirmed #Pegasus spyware found on the phones of 3 journalists, including a senior member of staff at @FRANCE24

It’s the 1st time an independent & official authority has corroborated the findings the investigation #PegasusProject. @Snowden

43/. In the US, Trump wanted to label #Antifa a terrorist organisation

In UK, @pritipatel added @XRebellionUK to a list of extremist ideologies

In #SaudiArabia, “terrorists” can include journalists, human rights activists, & even tweeters. #Pegasus

44/. Fighting back, one case at a time

@RSF_inter & two journalists have filed a joint complaint against NSO calling on them to “identify those responsible, & their accomplices,” for targeted harassment
#Pegasus #PegasusSpyware #BREAKING #PegasusSnoopgate rsf.org/en/news/after-…

45/. "#PegasusProject is just the latest example that exposes what some states will do outside the gaze of publicity & reinforces the importance of whistleblowers, journalists & publishers in holding the perpetrators of human rights violations to account.” amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

46/. Will spying on journalists be the ‘new normal’?

Must listen @globalfreemedia of podcast looks at the impact of #PegasusProject revelations & why they must serve as a wake-up call

With @morrton @svaradarajan & @javierluquem #Pegasus #PegasusSpyware
ipi.media/podcast-will-s…

47/. In response to #PegasusLeaks, UN experts call for moritorium on sale of surveillance technology warning it’s dangerous & irresponsible to allow surveillance technology to operate as a "human rights-free zone". #Pegasus #PegasusProject #PegasusSpyware
thewire.in/rights/pegasus…

48/. The #PegasusProject shed light on the ways govts across the globe sidestep encryption by resorting to the amoral expertise provided by private enterprise

A month after the #Pegasus revelations the grave implications to #HumanRights are being ignored
arena.org.au/the-pegasus-pr…

49/. UK govt unveils plan to scrap EU data protection rules as part of a post-Brexit privacy purge

Was this the driving force behind #Brexit?

The key to this #DataGrab is genomic data

A population-wide genomic database (eventually global) giving unparalleled power & control.👇

50/. Two months after @amnesty broke the #PegausProject scandal, the German govt has admitted its police bought #Pegasus spyware

In India, issue continues to rumble on with the Modi govt refusing to tell the Supreme Court whether or not they used #Pegasus
thewire.in/world/german-g…

51/. Apart from in India, the #Pegasus scandal came & went, largely unnoticed.

It reminds me of the #PanamaPapers (2016) & #ParadisePapers which blew the lid on how the rich & powerful exploit secretive offshore tax regimes in order to launder money, dodge sanctions & avoid tax.

52/. Hundreds of journalists around the world were involved in exposing the #PanamaPapers & #Paradisepapers but there’s been very little follow-up

One journalist who was following up was #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

Next month, we mark the 4th anniversary of her assassination in Malta

53/. "What makes you think the Labour Party are using #CambridgeAnalytica?"

"I don't think. I know"

Before she was murdered, #DaphneCaruanaGalizia was working to expose links btw SCL - #CambridgeAnalytica's parent company - citizenship firm, Henley & Partners, & then PM Muscat

54/. Three years after the UK parliament called a for criminal investigation into SCL, #CambridgeAnalytica, & Henley+Partners, a link btw the companies was proven

But more disturbing are the funders in the shadows like the Mercers who funded Steve Bannon.

55/. “The truest conspiracies meet with the least opposition

Methods by which true conspiracies are realized are almost always overshadowed by conspiracy theories: malevolent falsehoods that erode confidence in the existence of anything certain” @Snowden edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-p…

56/. #BREAKING: Mother of all lawsuits

#Zuckerberg, #Sandberg, #PeterThiel & #Palantir are all defendants

Allegations include that:

🔥#Facebook spent billions to protect Zuckerberg

🔥Epic corporate governance breakdown

🔥Insider trading

🔥Zuck misled Congress
#BreakingNews

57/. "It’s as if the Age of Reason - the era of evidential argument - is ending & knowledge is delegitimized & scientific consensus is dismissed. Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, & autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march” @SachaBaronCohen

New findings suggest #Palantir did indeed partner with #CambridgeAnalytica despite their ‘vigorous’ denials

Remember, Palantir rptdly taught Cambridge Analytica how to scape data

They also have access to population-wide genomic patient data in UK, US & scores of other countries

59/. “It’s one thing to know Thiel espouses far-right views. It’s another to see how he directly enables them to run free” @mehdirhasan

Thiel played a broker role btw Zuckerburg & Trump which resulted in a hands-off approach of conservative sites @chafkin

60/. We know Facebook helped #Cummings achieve Brexit thanks to #FacultyAI & a company owned & controlled by Cummings paid £250,000 to Faculty

Faculty run the NHS #COVID contract alongside Thiel’s Palantir

Both companies have links to #CambridgeAnalytica

61/. Human rights lawyer & husband of ex-PM, Cherie Blair has been revealed as ‘ethics advisor’ to NSO, the Israeli firm that sold #PegasusSpyware to human rights abusing govts

NSO are implicated in facilitating the murder of Jamal Kashoggi. #Pegasus thetimes.co.uk/article/cherie…

62/. On Saturday, we mark the 4th anniversary of the murder of #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

At the time, she was investigating the Panama Papers & links btw SCL/#CambridgeAnalytica & Henley Ptnrs

There are vigils in Malta & London

@Europarl_EN has a journalism award in her honour.

63/. In times of greater repression the job of journalists becomes more vital than ever: more vital & more dangerous

It’s in the interest of the corrupt & powerful to silence effective media

Today we mark 4 years since the murder of #DaphneCaruanaGalizia

64/. The idea for the #DaphneProject came about 4 years ago based on the idea: “You can kill a journalist but you can’t kill a story”

Fittingly, ystdy #PegasusProject investigation, led by @FbdnStories, won the #DaphneCaruanaGalizia prize for journalism awarded by @Europarl_EN

65/. #BREAKING: India’s Supreme Court has set up an independent expert committee to investigate the use of #PegasusSpyware against journalists, opposition MP’s & others.

“This is a huge vindication of #PegasusProject investigation. Let the inquiry begin!” @svaradarajan
#Pegasus

66/. Getting away with murder

Today is Intnl Day to #EndImpunity for Crimes against Journalists

The vast majority of journalist killings go unpunished

@pressfreedom reveals 226 journalists were murdered with impunity in the last decade

@globalfreemedia ipi.media/impunity-day-i…

67/. Around the world, investigative journalists face threats & intimidation

Impunity in cases of murdered journalists undermines #pressfreedom.

A threat to press freedom is a threat to ALL our freedoms.
#EndImpunity @UNESCO @pressfreedom @hrw @RSF_inter

68/. #BREAKING: NSO Group placed on a US blacklist by @JoeBiden admin after it determined the #PegasusSpyware maker has acted “contrary to the US foreign policy & national security interests”
@skirchy in @guardian @FbdnStories #PegasusProject @AmnestyTech theguardian.com/us-news/2021/n…

69/. The #PegasusProject has been awarded a @RSF_inter award for its impact

But what had the impact been so far?👇

Well done @FbdnStories @AmnestyTech @citizenlab @guardian @haaretzcom @lesoir @DIEZEIT @proceso @direkt36 @OCCRP @thewire_in @frontlinepbs

70/. “NSO Group is in crisis,” according to @HowellONeill in @techreview

“They are struggling & failing to reverse US sanctions & are $500 million in debt. There is doubt at the highest levels about their future”
#Pegasus #PegasusSpyware #pegasusproject
technologyreview.com/2021/11/23/104…

71/. NSO's #Pegasus spyware has been repeatedly used by abusive govts to target peaceful human rights defenders, activists & critics

86 NGOs & independent experts are now asking the EU to #SanctionNSO & ban all use of its technologies
@hrw #PegasusSpyware hrw.org/news/2021/12/0…

72/. The mobile phone of Kamel Jendoubi a UN-backed investigator who was examining possible war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was targeted with spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group. #PegasusProject #Pegasus #PegasusSpyware #SaudiArabia
theguardian.com/world/2021/dec…

73/. @AmnestyTech confirms @citizenlab's finding that Polish Senator @KrzysztofBrejza was hacked with #PegasusSpyware during the 2019 parliamentary election campaign

Ruling party chair admits buying #Pegasus but denies it was used for political purposes!
apnews.com/article/techno…

74/. These revelations show the need for govts to stop non-human rights compliant forms of surveillance & for a global moratorium on the export, sale, transfer & use of surveillance equipment, 'til a human rights-compliant regulatory framework is in place.
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…