Court order ignored: Meta takes action against Pegasus manufacturer NSO Group

Meta is once again taking legal action against the Israeli spyware company NSO Group. The parent company of has filed an application with a US federal court to establish contempt of court orders, according to its own statements. Meta announced this on Monday. The social media company accuses NSO Group of violating a permanent court injunction that prohibits the company from specifically targeting WhatsApp users.

"We have successfully thwarted NSO-related social engineering attempts after investigating user reports," Meta writes in a blog post . The perpetrators "tried to trick users into clicking on malicious links to redirect them to external websites outside of WhatsApp." According to Meta, the attacks resembled a 1-click phishing campaign that led to the infection of targets with NSO's Pegasus spyware. 1-click phishing is a type of cyberattack where a single click on a malicious link or attachment is sufficient to compromise a user's device or account without them having to enter their login credentials. Meta stated that it had also deleted test accounts and groups created by NSO on WhatsApp.

The legal dispute between Meta and NSO Group has been before the courts for several years. In a lawsuit filed in October 2019 , Meta accused NSO of violating various laws in the installation of the Pegasus spyware. NSO Group allegedly accessed WhatsApp servers unlawfully in early 2019, thereby enabling the surveillance of 1,400 individuals, including journalists and human rights activists.

After various courts, including the US Supreme Court, recognized the legality of the lawsuit, the case finally landed before the US District Court for the Northern District of California. At the end of February 2024, the responsible judge ruled that NSO Group must hand over the source code of the Pegasus spyware . Following a judgment in favor of Meta , a jury awarded the WhatsApp parent company more than 167 million US dollars in damages at the beginning of May 2025. NSO Group filed an objection against this.

Although the District Court in California reduced the damages to be paid from 167 million to four million US dollars at the end of last year, it simultaneously prohibited the spyware company from spying on WhatsApp . In the proceedings, NSO Group argued that the injunction would endanger the entire company.

This article was originally published in German . It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.