NSO Group allegedly kept targeting WhatsApp users with spyware even after a federal court told it to stop.
Meta filed a contempt motion claiming NSO violated an active injunction by launching fresh spear-phishing attacks through WhatsApp. WhatsApp engineers detected and disrupted the attempts before targets were compromised. The attacks are linked to Pegasus, NSO's commercial spyware platform sold to government clients who use it to surveil journalists, activists, and political opponents. Meta is now asking the court to sanction NSO for defying the order.
A contempt finding would matter because NSO has long shielded itself with a simple argument: it sells tools, not surveillance. Its government clients do the targeting. If a court holds NSO directly responsible for attacks launched under an active injunction, that firewall gets thinner — and it would mark one of the first times a spyware vendor faced legal consequences not just for what its product does, but for what it kept doing after being told to stop. It also suggests WhatsApp's detection capabilities have improved enough that Pegasus attempts now leave a traceable record.
NSO has already survived a US government blacklisting and a near-bankruptcy. Whether a contempt order finally changes the math, or becomes just another headline the company waits out, is the question the court now has to answer.