On November 3, the United States Department of Commerce announced it was blacklisting the Israeli technology firm, NSO Group. The decision to add the company to a list of entities engaging in activities contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests was momentous.
In its press release on the subject, the commerce department noted: “[there is] evidence that these entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers. These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent. Such practices threaten the rules-based international order.”
NSO blacklisting: It is time for the US to end its Cold War ways | Privacy | Al Jazeera
