A consortium of news outlets has exposed a group based in Israel claiming to have manipulated 33 elections worldwide and manufactured online disinformation campaigns at the behest of intelligence agencies, political campaigns, and private corporations

The fresh revelations add to the growing evidence of the use of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to target citizens in several countries, exposing a deeper link between Israel and assaults on people’s right to privacy

Saudi Arabia started spying on the chairman of the UN-mandated Group of Eminent Experts weeks before the independent panel released a bombshell report recommending criminal prosecution against members of the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen

Canada-based Citizen Lab stated that it has verified the numbers with Paris-based Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, organisations responsible for last month’s global media coverage which implicated dozens of governments across the world for using the spyware

Spyware like Pegasus is not just dangerous as it wrests complete control over an infected phone. It is menacing also because it introduces the skills and knowledge of nation-states into the civilian sphere

The spyware may have been used by governments across the world to spy on journalists, activists, rival politicians, leaders of other countries among others

Several governments have been accused of using the Israeli spyware to snoop on dissidents and journalists in reports published by 17 media organisations worldwide recently

The revelation was made in a report published by The Guardian and 16 other media organizations on Sunday which is based on the findings of Amnesty International and Paris based Forbidden Stories.