Social media companies are taking action against “surveillance for hire” firms.
Graphic by Pixabay/Illustration by CNET
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, said Thursday that it banned seven companies that sell software and services used to spy on journalists, human rights activists, politicians and others in more than 100 countries.
The firms included Israeli-based Cobwebs Technologies, Cognyte, Black Cube and Bluehawk CI. Meta also took action against an Indian company called BellTroX, the North Macedonian firm Cytrox and an unknown entity in China, according to a report released by Meta’s cybersecurity team.
These companies say their services and software are meant to help catch criminals and terrorists, but Meta said after a months-long investigation that the social media giant determined the services were also used to target people outside that group. Some of the tactics included creating fake accounts to search and view people’s social media profiles and their list of friends, engaging with people using fictitious personas and tricking users into giving away their account information by getting them to click on malicious links.
“The ‘surveillance-for-hire’ entities we removed and described in this report violated multiple Community Standards and Terms of Service. Given the severity of their violations, we have banned them from our services,” the report stated. Meta didn’t list the customers of the firms, but said some of them included private individuals, law firms and businesses.
The move is an example of how tech giants are taking action against companies that sell software and services used for the surveillance. In November, Apple sued NSO Group, an Israel-based firm that developed spyware known as Pegasus found on the phones of journalists, human rights workers, executives and government workers including at least nine US State Department employees.
Meta pulled down a total of about 1,500 accounts on Facebook and its photo service Instagram tied to the seven surveillance-for-hire groups and also issued cease-and-desist warnings. The social media company said it alerted roughly 50,000 people it believes these firms targeted. The notice states that Facebook believes a “sophisticated attacker” may be targeting their account and warns users about accepting friend requests from people they don’t know or chatting with strangers. Facebook users are then recommended to go through their privacy and security settings to make sure their accounts are secure.
Facebook has rules against people misrepresenting themselves on the social network, including through fake accounts, to deceive other people. The company said that law enforcement groups can submit lawful requests for information from the platform.
CNET is reaching out to the companies cited in the report.
