WASHINGTON : The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked President Joe Biden's administration to weigh in on whether the justices should hear a case on whether Meta Platforms Inc's WhatsApp can pursue a lawsuit accusing Israel's NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software.
WhatsApp has said the software was used for the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents. Meta Platforms is the parent of WhatsApp and Facebook and was known as Facebook Inc when the suit was filed. WhatsApp in October 2019 sued NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install the Pegasus software on the targeted people's mobile devices. NSO has argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security.