Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, has revealed six surveillance and reconnaissance companies for allegedly conducting spying operations or other violations, accusing them in a report published on Thursday of collectively targeting around 50,000 individuals through its platforms. This battle with spyware companies is part of a broader movement by American tech companies against digital spying service providers, especially the Israeli group (NSO), which was blacklisted this month after weeks of revelations regarding the use of its software against civil society. Meta is already suing NSO in a U.S. court. Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Security Policy at Meta, told Reuters that Thursday's campaign is meant to indicate that "the surveillance-for-hire industry is much broader than a single company."
Meta's report states that it is suspending around 1,500 accounts, most of which are fake, operated by seven organizations across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta clarified that these entities targeted individuals in over 100 countries. However, Meta did not provide a detailed explanation of how it identified the surveillance companies, although it operates some of the largest social networks and regularly promotes its ability to detect and remove malicious actors from its platforms.
Among the companies listed was the Israeli firm Black Cube, which has become notorious for deploying operatives on behalf of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Meta alleged that Black Cube was using fake personas to engage in conversations with their targets online and collect their email addresses "for likely phishing attacks later." Black Cube stated in a statement that it "has not engaged in any phishing or hacking" and regularly asserts that "all of our employees' activities are fully compliant with local laws."
Other companies exposed by Meta include the Indian electronic firm Pill Trox, which was uncovered last year by Reuters and the Citizen Lab specializing in cybersecurity, an Israeli company named Bluehawk CI, and a European company called CyTROX, all of which were accused by Meta of hacking. The company Cognit, which separated from the major security firm Verint Systems in February, along with the Israeli firm Cowboybs, were accused not of hacking but of using fake profiles to trick platform users into revealing their private data. Companies Cognit, Verint, and Bluehawk have yet to respond to requests for comment.
Gleicher stated that among the other targets of these spying companies were celebrities, politicians, journalists, lawyers, executives, and ordinary citizens. He added that the friends and families of the targets were also subjected to spying campaigns.
