Spyware scandal: Italian government reportedly admits targeting activists (www.euractiv.com)
from schizoidman@lemm.ee to privacy@lemmy.ml on 28 Mar 2025 08:55
https://lemm.ee/post/59681790

cross-posted from: sopuli.xyz/post/24530208

ROME - For nearly two months, the Italian government has evaded questions, dismissed allegations, and shifted its narrative in the face of mounting pressure from opposition parties and activists.

Now, a turning point: Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano has reportedly admitted that Italy’s intelligence services authorised spyware surveillance on members of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans. Yet, a crucial mystery remains - who was behind the surveillance of Fanpage.it director Francesco Cancellato?

The parliamentary intelligence oversight committee (Copasir) is investigating whether the use of the Israeli spyware complied with Italian law and whether intelligence services acted within their mandate in authorizing preventive wiretaps.

While the hearings remain classified, leaks from Tuesday’s session published by La Repubblicasuggest that Mantovano - who oversees intelligence agencies - acknowledged that the government had approved surveillance on certain activists. However, he maintained that Cancellato was never among the targets.

#privacy

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SolarPunker@slrpnk.net on 28 Mar 2025 09:30 next collapse

The Paragon spyware works thru WhatsApp: once they add you in a special group they can access to your phone immediately; Meta sent a message to these users notifying that their security was compromised.

RiQuY@lemm.ee on 28 Mar 2025 12:58 collapse

That suspiciously looks like an intended backdoor.

FauxLiving@lemmy.world on 28 Mar 2025 16:18 collapse

Just one of many “bugs” that suspiciously never get fixed…

eldavi@lemmy.ml on 28 Mar 2025 17:14 collapse

there was a post yesterday on asklemmy from someone who wanted to escape fascism by going to italy and i got downvoted for trying to make them aware that italy is doing the same shit, like this posts describes.

i wish i could understand why they assumed that italy isn’t fascist when they literally elected a fascist leader and made worse anti-lgbt laws than the americans have done (so far).

SolarPunker@slrpnk.net on 28 Mar 2025 18:38 collapse

Italy also had the greatest communist party in the west, popular opinion has always been very divided.

eldavi@lemmy.ml on 28 Mar 2025 19:36 collapse

popular opinion is one thing; those people appear to be willfully ignoring reality.