Italian investigative journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Israeli spyware

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Fri 31 Jan 2025 18.46 EST
Last modified on Fri 31 Jan 2025 20.36 EST


An Italian investigative journalist who is known for exposing young fascists within prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party was targeted with spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions, according to a WhatsApp notification received by the journalist.

Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of the Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage, was the first person to come forward publicly after WhatsApp announced on Friday that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had been targeted by the spyware. The journalist, like dozens of others whose identities are not yet known, said he received a notification from the messaging app on Friday afternoon.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, has not identified the targets or their precise locations, but said they were based in more than two dozen countries, including in Europe. WhatsApp said it had discovered that Paragon was targeting its users in December and shut down the vector used to “possibly compromise” the individuals. Like other spyware makers, Paragon sells use of its spyware, known as Graphite, to government agencies, who are supposed to use it to fight and prevent crime.

Paragon’s spyware was allegedly delivered to targets who were placed on group chats without their permission, and sent malware through PDFs in the group chat. Paragon makes no-click spyware, which means users do not have to click on any link or attachment to be infected; it is simply delivered to the phone.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/31/italian-journalist-whatsapp-israeli-spyware

[BoRaGard]

1. Coming soon to a former democracy near you

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. Spying on people will be much easier

Once Zuck gives fascists access to the platform.

[LauraInLA]

3. Why is anyone using WhatsApp rather than Signal??? Especially if it's sensitive information.

[iemanja]

4. Israel, protecting fascists again

First Musk and now this.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. How?

There is nothing in the article claiming Israel did this.

[iemanja]

6. The journalist Israel was spying on was exposing far right-wing fascists

and Netanyahu defended Musk's Nazi salute.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Where does it say that?

[iemanja]

8. first line

An Italian investigative journalist who is known for exposing young fascists within prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party was targeted with spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions, according to a WhatsApp notification received by the journalist.

Either Israel is spying directly, or they sold spyware to a fascist government.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. Read it again. Here let me help you out...

"Israel-based Paragon Solutions"

This is akin to Google being an American-BASED company.

[iemanja]

10. I saw that

Are you happy with an Israel-based entity assisting fascists?

[Behind the Aegis]

11. You saw it? Then, your comments make no sense.

[iemanja]

12. At first, I read it as Israel

You, however, do not know that it's not the Israeli government. At the very least, it's an Israeli company willing to work with fascists, and the government doesn't stop them. Additionally, the fact that Netanyahu covered for Musk shows that he's willing to accommodate Nazis. Do you defend that too? When confronted with real antisemitism, they balk. But if anyone objects to the killings of tens of thousands of Gazan civilians, they insist THAT is antisemitism. Sound familiar? The ADF did the exact same thing vis a vis Musk.
.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. Yes...finally.

"You, however, do not know that it's not the Israeli government" Nope. Any more than you KNOW it is.

The rest of your distractions are of no interest to me. Just wanted to expose the "confirmation bias".

[iemanja]

14. Nazism is of no interest to you?

Good to know. I'll keep that in mind.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. Just like your first comment.

I'll keep that in mind, as well.

[iemanja]

16. I'm comfortable with the contrast

[Israeli]

17. In response to .....

Additionally, the fact that Netanyahu covered for Musk shows that he's willing to accommodate Nazis.

see : link from Haaretz Today @
https://archive.md/Ypf2W

When it comes to Musk, this is nothing new: Netanyahu has long been the billionaire's useful Jew when it comes to batting away allegations of antisemitism – fascist salutes, Soros conspiracy theories, platforming explicitly antisemitic voices and inappropriate trolling aside.

Ive seen American Jews on this forum defend Musk and Netanyahu , if they were Israelis I would put it down to them being
either religious right wing or Likudniks ......BUT ...Democrats !!!!

I think its the mindset that we can do no wrong or its the guilt that we are here and they are there .

[iemanja]

18. I find it puzzling myself.

Thanks for the info.