Meta cracks down © Getty Meta, the parent company of Facebook, on Thursday announced that it was taking action to crack down on seven surveillance-for-hire companies that had attempted to target around 50,000 users. Massive targeting: The company detailed its concerns around the surveillance groups in a threat report released Thursday, noting that it had disabled accounts used by the groups, shared its findings with other platforms and security researchers, issued cease-and-desist warnings to six of the groups, and was warning impacted individuals in over 100 countries. Those targeted included journalists, human rights activists, government dissidents, families of opposition members, members of the clergy and many others. Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of Security Policy at Facebook, told reporters ahead of the report’s release that the online surveillance industry is akin to “indiscriminate targeting on behalf of the highest bidder.” “Cyber mercenaries often claim that their services and surveillance ware are meant to focus on tracking criminals and terrorists, but our investigations and similar investigations by independent researchers, our industry peers, and governments have demonstrated that the targeting is in fact indiscriminate,” Gleicher said. Context: The report was released amid ongoing fallout over the addition of Israel company NSO Group on the Commerce Department’s “entity list” last month. The move effectively blacklisted the company, and the step was taken over allegations that its Pegasus spyware had been sold to foreign governments that used to crackdown on dissidents and other groups. Since then, NSO Group has been in freefall, with The Wall Street Journal reporting earlier this week that executives were considering selling the business. Read more here. |
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