Thread by @alok_bhatt

Dear @laurentrichard0 , congrats on repaying the faith, ur investors posed in you. Notwithstanding conclusions & claims of your organisation or that of @citizenlab or @amnesty -there are many unanswered Qns that you will have to answer. Let me list some one by one in this thread!

https://twitter.com/laurentrichard0/status/1416793393028608010

The entire conclusion of your report is based on presence of 50,000 telephone nos believed to have been selected as potential surveillance targets by the countries/agencies using Pegasus. This raises following Qn-
1. What is the source of this purported data leak of 50K nos?

2. What is the guarantee that those 50,000 nos were actively used for Pegasus interception and is not a mere collection of nos meant to create sensation?

3. How have u ensured that 50K nos were genuine nos?
@laurentrichard0

Next @laurentrichard0 - Amnesty reports and the details shared by @FbdnStories specifically mention that the mere presence of the phone numbers in the data is no guarantee of infection or snooping.

4. Isn’t it bizarre that despite this very statement, you call this snooping?

Amnesty claimed that its security lab has designed a test scan methodology and basis that examination on 67 phones, they found out that:
# 23 phones were infected.
# 14 phones showed signs of attempted intrusion.
# Scan on the remaining 30 smartphones was inconclusive.

Per @Amnesty security lab, 15 phones were Android devices, none of which showed evidence of successful infection as their test scan could not scan Android phones as they do not maintain logs and the information required for Amnesty’s forensic analysis. So tool is IPhone specific?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417360308264333314

Given the details in quoted thread @laurentrichard0 - would u or @jsrailton of @citizenlab or @tenacioustek of @amnesty tell us following -
1. What kind of test scan would work on one OS but not on other ?
2. What is the guarantee that this is not a sponsored action of rival co?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417360646828482563

3. How many of those 67 phones belonged to -
- journalists working in 17 media partners of @FbdnStories ?
- employees of @amnesty , @FbdnStories or @citizenlab ?
- can u pls segregate the data against Q3 into android and iPhone pls?

4. Ur entire story is based on results of scans on 67 phones of which-

# 30 didn’t find infection / trace. This represents 44.78% of total sample size.

# 14 phones representing 20.90% of total sample didn’t find infection - only attempted hacking

# 23 or 34.32% were infected

Further to the quoted detail, if I were to assume 50,000 phones nos as total population of data, your sample size 67 phones represents 0.13 % of total phones. The infection % (23 out of 50,000 telephones) is even lower at 0.046% of the total phones. Attempt was on 14 (0.028%) ph

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417364508704534528

Given the details in quoted thread @laurentrichard0 - would u or @jsrailton of @citizenlab or @tenacioustek of @amnesty tell me if this sample size n sample results adequate to conclude what u have concluded?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417365241722130432

Dear @laurentrichard0 ur story claims that the data and results of forensic analysis done by team headed by @tenacioustek of @amnesty
was peer reviewed by team of @jsrailton of @citizenlab. Great it is but could u pls explain this - wasn’t @tenacioustek ur employee earlier?

This Qn is to @AgnesCallamard - in the light of quoted thread about your peer review process and brazen conflict of interest , how reliable can the result be?

Dear @laurentrichard0 - would u or @jsrailton of @citizenlab or @tenacioustek of @amnesty - any comments pls?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417366645127794693

Let us move ahead - next @laurentrichard0 u must answer as to how u singled out 11 countries out of 45 that @jsrailton has claimed to be using Pegasus in his 2018 report - screenshots attached - @AgnesCallamard u also owe an answer here!

Dear @laurentrichard0 per ur own @FbdnStories ,focus of the entire investigation was on 11 countries, termed as the repressive governments that use Pegasus spyware as a “weapon of choice to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril”

The 11 countries chosen by @FbdnStories of @laurentrichard0 and his 17 media partners as potential NSO clients included Azerbaijan,Bahrain, Hungary,India,Kazakhstan,Mexico, Morocco,Rwanda,Saudi Arabia,Togo & UAE. One of the decision makers is known India hater @svaradarajan

11 countries, per @FbdnStories of @laurentrichard0 were finalized based on examining the pattern of targeting by Forbidden Stories and its 17 media partners. Later, @CitizenLab confirmed those governments as NSO clients. No conflict of interest here between Citizen lab & Amnesty?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417366645127794693

Next is claim by @FbdnStories of @laurentrichard0 that of 50K telephone nos-
15K were from Mexico & 10K each from Morocco & UAE.  Even European countries had entered more than 1,000 numbers in the system. Yet India with allegedly less than 300 nos made the cut to list-wonder why!

Dear @laurentrichard0 qn to u basis info in quoted tweet-
1) what was role played by @svaradarajan ? Surely u must be aware of his views on current Govt- what abt objectivity?
2) @AgnesCallamard run @amnesty is known violator of FCRA laws & chose to exit!- objectivity possible?

https://twitter.com/alok_bhatt/status/1417370724289769473

Next- @FbdnStories run by @laurentrichard0 , @citizenlab run by @RonDeibert and @amnesty run by @AgnesCallamard are ALL funded by @georgesoros run @OpenSociety - Soros said this in Jan 2002 abt Indian Govt headed by @narendramodi -so no conflict here?

Amnesty run by @AgnesCallamard in partnership with @RonDeibert run @citizenlab came out with this report in June 2020 by @jsrailton abt their stand on the Bhima Koregaon case - amnesty’s stand on Indian Govt of @narendramodi is clear-why must this not be termed as propaganda job?