Reporters Without Borders demands Israel stop exporting spyware

Demand comes after leaked list showed some 50,000 phone numbers, including that of journalists and politicians, believed to be chosen for surveillance by clients of Israel’s NSO group.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Israel to suspend exports of spying technology amid allegations it was used to target more than a dozen heads of state and hundreds of journalists. Earlier this week a list was leaked of some 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been chosen by clients of Israel’s NSO Group for possible surveillance, according to an international reporting effort. “Enabling governments to install spyware that is used in practice to monitor hundreds of journalists and their sources throughout the world poses a major democratic problem,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement on the Paris-based group’s website on Wednesday.