A right-wing social activist in India filed a petition asking the country's top court to order a probe into Facebook and WhatsApp over revelations that a piece of spyware had exploited vulnerabilities in the popular messaging app to snoop on hundreds of devices.
The Israeli government on Friday denied any involvement in an alleged cyber- hack by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group.
​Senior government officials in multiple U.S.-allied countries were targeted earlier this year with hacking software that used Facebook's WhatsApp to take over users' phones, according to people familiar with the messaging company's investigation.
WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents in a hacking spree whose targets included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.
​WhatsApp said that a security breach on its messaging app had signs of coming from a government using surveillance technology developed by a private company and may have targeted human rights groups.
Facebook may be shelling out $19 billion in cash and stock for the messaging company WhatsApp to stanch the departure of younger users from the social network.