Thread by @thewire_in

Journalists. Activists. Opposition leaders. All reportedly targeted with a military-grade spyware. This is a thread of stories from @thewire_in, as we mark one year of Pegasus revelations.
#Pegasus #PegasusSpyware
thewire.in/government/pro…

NSO Group, the Israeli company which sells Pegasus worldwide, says its clients are confined to "vetted governments", which rules out the possibility that any private entity in India or abroad is responsible for the infections. | @svaradarajan
thewire.in/government/pro…

@svaradarajan Access to the spyware, which is classified as military-grade software and produced by NSO Group, was reportedly part of a "package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear worth roughly $2 billion" between India and Israel, a report by @nytimes said.
thewire.in/tech/india-bou…

@svaradarajan @nytimes Ashok Lavasa, then Election Commissioner who ruled that PM Modi had violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the 2019 general election, was selected as a potential candidate for surveillance just weeks after his dissent. | @kabira_tweeting
thewire.in/government/peg…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting In the midst of the heated West Bengal assembly election, the phone of poll strategist @PrashantKishor was broken into using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. | @kabira_tweeting @AjoyAshirwad @svaradarajan
thewire.in/government/pra…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad Three phone numbers belonging to the Supreme Court staffer who accused former CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in April 2019 were selected as potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus. | @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @kabira_tweeting
thewire.in/rights/ranjan-…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha The choice of @RahulGandhi as a target for potential surveillance at a time when he was leading the Congress party into the 2019 general election against Narendra Modi raises troubling questions about the integrity of the electoral process. | @svaradarajan
thewire.in/government/rah…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi "How could a software that is meant to combat crime and terrorism be used to target politicians, journalists and activists?" asked Congress MP @ShashiTharoor. | @khanumarfa
thewire.in/video/watch-pe…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa Besides giving access to messages, photos and emails, and listening in to phone calls, an infected phone can also be used by the agency operating the spyware as a remote camera and microphone, recording the most intimate moments. |
@sukanyashantha
thewire.in/women/pegasus-…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa The Modi regime seems content being in its own little bubble, describing it all as "fake news". It is so far removed from reality that it is not even clearly acknowledging it has bought the Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company. | @mkvenu1
thewire.in/tech/india-peg…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 The policeman is very good at creating an alternative reality, convenient to the politician in power. It takes wisdom to resist the allure of the policeman's toys like Pegasus – and, such wisdom is anathema to the cabal from Gandhinagar. | Harish Khare
thewire.in/politics/bjp-p…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 The way authoritarian regimes are using Pegasus across the world to target journalists, activists and women raises an important conundrum – has NSO, in the name of security and defence, created a beast too powerful enough to control? | @onosmosis
thewire.in/tech/marketing…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 @onosmosis The information gathered from surveillance using Pegasus can enable the BJP to sabotage any opposition to it in an election and to coerce all institutions to toe its line – or else. | Avay Shukla
thewire.in/government/ind…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 @onosmosis The secret deal between India and Israel for the sale of Pegasus in 2017 was struck at the 'highest levels' of each country's political and intelligence leadership, Israeli investigative journalist @ronenbergman told @thewire_in. | @svaradarajan
thewire.in/diplomacy/indi…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 @onosmosis @ronenbergman When governments pretend they know nothing about illegal hacking on such a massive scale, they hack democracy. We must be the antivirus that prevents it. We must keep speaking. And make ourselves heard. | @mkvenu1
thewire.in/tech/pegasus-s…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa @mkvenu1 @onosmosis @ronenbergman "If you don't do anything to stop the sale of this technology, it's not just going to be 50,000 targets. It's going to be 50 million targets, and it's going to happen much more quickly than any of us expect," reportedly warned @Snowden. | Arundhati Roy
thewire.in/rights/pegasus…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa At least nine numbers belonging to activists, lawyers and academics arrested between June 2018 and October 2020 for their supposed role in the Elgar Parishad case were found to have been in the leaked database. | @sukanyashantha
thewire.in/rights/elgar-p…

@svaradarajan @nytimes @kabira_tweeting @PrashantKishor @AjoyAshirwad @sukanyashantha @RahulGandhi @ShashiTharoor @khanumarfa Amnesty International's Security Lab carried out a forensic analysis of Geelani's phone, the results of which the organsation say confirm that the phone was compromised on and off for over two years. | @sukanyashantha
thewire.in/rights/sar-gee…