Meta seeks contempt order against NSO Group over WhatsApp targeting attempts
Meta says it will ask a US federal court to hold NSO Group in contempt after WhatsApp disrupted new spear-phishing attempts linked to the spyware company. The move follows what Meta described as fresh efforts to target WhatsApp users despite a permanent injunction barring NSO from targeting the messaging service and its users. Meta said it also removed test accounts and groups that it said were created by NSO on the platform.
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According to Meta, the latest attempts were similar to earlier "1-click phishing campaigns", in which a single click on a malicious link can compromise a device or account. The company said the activity was detected on Monday and that the targeting was linked to NSO, which the United States has blacklisted over national-security concerns. NSO did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to the report.
The dispute adds to a long-running legal fight between Meta and the Israeli spyware firm over the use of WhatsApp as a delivery route for surveillance tools. Last year, a US court ordered NSO to stop targeting WhatsApp, a ruling that significantly reduced the punitive damages NSO owed Meta to $4m from an initial $167m. Meta said the injunction remains in force and that the new alleged targeting justifies a contempt order.
The case matters because it sits at the intersection of platform security, spyware regulation and civil-rights concerns. NSO has faced repeated accusations that its Pegasus hacking tool has been used in ways that enable human rights abuses, and the company has argued that the injunction could threaten its business. Meta said the latest filing is being supported by 12 civil rights organisations, security researchers, privacy advocates and digital rights experts who submitted amicus briefs last month in support of the injunction.
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WhatsApp's intervention also highlights how messaging platforms continue to be used as entry points for phishing and surveillance attempts. Meta said the latest campaign involved test accounts and groups created by NSO, suggesting an effort to probe or stage activity on the service. The company's account indicates that the platform's security teams were able to disrupt the activity before it could spread further.
What remains unclear is how many users, if any, were directly targeted or affected by the latest attempts. It is also not yet known how the court will respond to Meta's contempt request or whether NSO will contest the allegations in detail. The next key development will be the filing and any subsequent court action over whether the company breached the existing injunction.
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