A judge in California's federal court system dismissed a legal action on Wednesday brought by journalists from El Faro, an independent Salvadoran news outlet, after their phones were compromised by sophisticated zero-click spyware. The court determined it lacked the authority to hear the matter, rejecting arguments that California had jurisdiction over the dispute.
Between June 2020 and November 2021, the spyware tool Pegasus targeted lead plaintiff Carlos Dada and his colleagues at the outlet on at least 226 occasions, according to research by the Knight First Amendment Institute, which brought the case on their behalf in November 2022.
The action against NSO Group, the manufacturer of Pegasus, marked the first lawsuit of its kind filed in an American court. A separate judge had previously rejected the case in March 2024, characterizing it as having no connection to California and therefore no basis for being heard there.
The journalists contended that the court should take the case because the attacks made use of compromised systems and infrastructure based within California. According to the Knight Institute, the targeted phones were accessed remotely, with attack frequency intensifying shortly before the publication of major reporting by the outlet.
The plaintiffs sought an order requiring NSO to remove all data it had obtained and to disclose the identity of the government or entity that had commissioned the surveillance operation. NSO did not provide a statement in response to inquiries about the ruling, while the Knight Institute announced its intention to pursue an appeal.
