Meta cracks down on companies that spied on users in 100 countries

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. has announced a sweeping crackdown on surveillance companies that it says have used its social media websites to spy on people in more than 100 countries.

In a report published on Thursday, Meta identified six companies from Israel, India, and North Macedonia, in addition to an unknown entity in China, which it said carried out “indiscriminate” surveillance targeting thousands of people.

Meta said it had blocked infrastructure associated with the companies, issued cease and desist warnings to them, and banned about 1,500 of their accounts from Facebook and Instagram, which had secretly been used to carry out reconnaissance, launch hacking campaigns and trick people into providing personal information.

Those targeted for surveillance by the companies included journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, and families of opposition and human rights activists, according to Meta. More than 48,000 people believed to have been targeted by the surveillance companies were alerted by Meta.“The goal of today’s enforcement is not just to take down their accounts, but to disrupt their activity in most costly way possible, to blow the cover on their operations and bring transparency to the industry,” said David Agranovich, Meta’s director of threat disruption.

The revelations come amid rising scrutiny of firms that provide governments with surveillance technologies. The firms, such as Israel’s NSO Group Ltd, contend that they provide tools to help intelligence and law enforcement agencies.