Wednesday, Mediterranean rescue of peopleItalian non -profit with the mission to save immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe, said that one of its founders was among the goals of a recent spy campaign implemented against WhatsApp users.
In a press releaseMediterranean said WhatsApp announced his founder Luca Casarini last week that he was targeted with espionage made by Paragon Solutions, starting Israeli surveillance. On Friday, WhatsApp said it interrupted a spy campaign Using a paragon -spy, which aimed at about 90 people.
At the time, the Meta-owned company said that among the goals are journalists and members of civil society, without calling anyone. Since then some of the goals, including Casarini, have begun to move forward.
The first person was Francesco Cancellatothe director of Fanpage.itItalian news website, which has published surveys of organized crime and corruption. Last year the publication reported multi -part documentary This showed some members of the party’s youth wing currently managing the Italian government singing about fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, singing Nazi slogans and making racist remarks.
After Cancellato, Swedish-based activist Husam El Gomati Also came forward. El Gomati was critical of how Libya and Italy collaborated to stop immigrants to cross the Mediterranean. And now, Casarini is the newest man who has been announced by WhatsApp.
All three goals have one thing in common, their work, or that of their organizations, was critical of the current Italian government, led by far -right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“The activities of rescue at sea and helping people imprisoned in Libyan camps or deported to the desert are the focus of attention from Italian secret services, especially the Aise, which works in Libya and Tunisia,” Mediterranean said in its press release. “Some questions arise: Has the Italian government authorized such an operation? Do the Italian secret services use a Paragon program? ”
Contact us
Do you have more information about Paragon, and this spy campaign? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai safely on a signal at +1 917 257 1382, or by telegram and keyboard @LorenzoFB, or E -mail. You can also contact Techcrunch by Safeguard.
So far the Italian government has not answered that question, nor did the government comment on the cases of cancellato nor casarini.
The Italian government, with its official press release, as well as that of Fabrizio Alfano, the head of Meloni’s press office, did not respond to Techcrunch’s requests for comments and questions, which included whether Italy purchased Paragon’s espionage.
Ynetnews, Israeli news site, Reported On Monday, Italy is a Paragon client.
John Fleming, the executive president of the US branch of Paragon, did not respond to a request for comment on Casarini’s case, nor responded to a request for comment on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Fleming told Techcrunch that paragon, which was obtained from the US Private Ae Industrial Fund in Decembersells its products “to a chosen group of global democracies – mainly the United States and its allies.”
“[Paragon] Requires all users to agree on terms and conditions that explicitly prohibit the illegal targeting of journalists and other civilian social figures. We have a zero-tolerant policy against such aiming and stop our relationship with any client who violates our services, “Fleming said in the statement.
Fleming has not yet answered questions about Paragon, including whether the Italian government is a client, and whether Paragon is investigating WhatsApp’s allegations and those of the goals so far.
Mediterranean said the Citizen Laboratory, a digital rights organization at the University of Toronto, which has been investigating spies for over a decade, conducts a survey on Casarini’s phone.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, confirmed to Techcrunch that they are actively investigating Paragon.
Scott-Railton warned that these cases are another remembrance that the Mercenaria spy industry, with companies like NSO Group and Paragon, feed abuses for years, even in democratic countries.
“If you sell surveillance tools, it’s just a question of when the technology is being abused, not it will be,” said Scott-Railton.
“If you sell secret surveillance to democracies, you still have to be incredibly skeptical of your clients and assume the possibility that abuse is hiding around every corner. Mercenaria spy model, what is: If you sell surveillance tools, it’s just a matter of when the technology will be abused, not whether it will be, “said Scott-Railton.
