Meta is going back to court against NSO Group, this time accusing the Israeli spyware firm of violating a permanent injunction that was supposed to stop it from targeting WhatsApp users. The contempt complaint, filed on June 8, alleges that NSO ran spear-phishing campaigns designed to trick users into clicking malicious links, effectively ignoring a court order that told it to knock it off.
The complaint names both NSO Group Technologies and Q Cyber Technologies. It centers on newly detected phishing attempts linked to Pegasus, NSO’s flagship surveillance tool.
A legal saga years in the making
WhatsApp first discovered in 2019 that NSO’s spyware had compromised over 1,400 devices by exploiting vulnerabilities in the messaging platform. Meta sued, and the case ground through the courts for years. A summary judgment in December 2024 found NSO liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for accessing WhatsApp’s servers without authorization. Damages were later adjusted to approximately $4 million.
The court then issued a permanent injunction barring NSO from targeting WhatsApp users going forward. Meta’s new complaint essentially says NSO crossed that line anyway.
