Thai court dismisses activist’s closely watched lawsuit against spyware maker

A Thai civil court on Thursday dismissed a high-profile lawsuit filed by a prominent Thai activist who was allegedly targeted with powerful spyware manufactured by the NSO Group.

The activist, Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, sued the surveillance technology company for allegedly “failing to prevent him” from being targeted with spyware, according to an Amnesty International press release. 

Jatupat was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in 2017 for criticizing the Thai monarchy. Thailand is considered to be an autocratic regime.

The lawsuit alleged that NSO Group facilitated his targeting and violated his and the other Thai activists’ rights. He sought 2,500,000 Thai baht ($72,129) in damages along with access to the data taken from his device and the deletion of it from the spyware firm’s database, according to the press release.

The court dismissed the case, saying there was not enough evidence to prove his device was infected.  

The case was considered to be a potentially landmark challenge to NSO, which manufactures a powerful zero-click spyware known as Pegasus that has been found on scores of devices belonging to human rights activists, journalists and opposition politicians worldwide.

An NSO spokesperson said in a statement that it welcomes the court’s decision “reaffirming the lack of evidence to support the claims against our company.” 

“We remain committed to the responsible use of our technologies, which are exclusively provided to government agencies for the prevention of serious crimes and terrorism,” they said.

In July 2022 The Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto-based digital rights nonprofit which has discovered dozens of Pegasus infections, announced that its forensic researchers had found Pegasus on devices belonging to at least 30 Thai pro-democracy protesters and dissidents advocating for changes to the country’s monarchy system. 

Amnesty International’s Security Lab subsequently verified The Citizen Lab’s research methods and performed its own forensic analysis of devices belonging to Thai human rights activists.

The alleged infections occurred between October 2020 and November 2021, The Citizen Lab said in a 2022 post on its website. The activists initially learned of what were deemed to be potential infections through notices from Apple.

The Thai lawsuit is significant because it is one of the few to have been filed against the NSO Goup in the Global South. Had it gone to trial, the case would have provided information about which actors and agencies engaged with NSO to deploy Pegasus against the activists, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, the director of Asia Pacific policy at the digital rights group Access Now.

He added that the lawsuit was also important because it unfolded at the same time as a lawsuit from WhatsApp against NSO, which he said has “demonstrated clearly that NSO Group has had direct knowledge of the usage of Pegasus and who it's being used against, and that their previous claims around not knowing what their customers are doing has been proven to be false.”

Other human rights leaders expressed deep concern over the court decision.

"The court’s failure to recognize NSO Group’s role in facilitating human rights abuses via the targeting of Thai human rights defenders with Pegasus spyware is deeply alarming,” Amnesty International Thailand researcher Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong said in a statement.

“NSO has sold Pegasus without adequate safeguards against human rights violations, making it responsible for the rights abuses.” 

NSO Group refuses to share “due diligence processes” required by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the rights group alleged.

NSO Group maintains that it simply manufactures spyware, but recent sworn testimony from its executives suggest it plays an extensive role in operating it. 

The company also refuses to disclose who its government clients are despite the rampant abuse of its spyware. It says the spyware is only meant to be used to fight terrorism and crime, but its frequent use to target and infect the devices of members of civil society has sparked controversy about the spyware manufacturer’s responsibility for the widespread violation of its rules.

The NSO spokesperson said the company “operates under strict regulatory frameworks and ethical standards, and we will continue to cooperate with authorities to ensure our products are used lawfully and effectively."