The Supreme Court on Monday allowed WhatsApp, owned by Facebook (now known as Meta), to pursue a lawsuit against the NSO Group, the Israeli cyberintelligence company responsible for the "Pegasus" spyware exploit that enabled the surveillance of thousands of journalists and activists around the world.

“NSO’s spyware has enabled cyberattacks targeting human rights activists, journalists and government officials,” Facebook said. “We firmly believe that their operations violate U.S. law and they must be held to account for their unlawful operations.”

The Pegasus program, which enabled the remote surveillance of smartphones, was allegedly one of the most successful and wide reaching in the world, with reportedly thousands of journalists and activists infected through WhatsApp alone.