SURVEILLANCEFrom Exporting Spyware to Surveilling Activists – How Democracies Became the New Digital Authoritarians
“Digital authoritarianism” refers to governments using technology for surveillance and censorship to repress dissent. China remains the master practitioner, but democracies, too — in particular, India and Israel — are beginning to repress their citizens with the same tools and export them abroad.
“Digital authoritarianism” refers to governments using technology for surveillance and censorship to repress dissent.
China remains the master practitioner. There, sweeping surveillance and censorship at home is combined with cyber-espionage and disinformation, censorship and influence campaigns abroad.
But this problem is no longer confined to Moscow or Beijing. Democracies, too, are beginning to repress their citizens with the same tools, and export them abroad.
Two countries in particular – India and Israel – reveal how democracies are drifting toward the very digital authoritarianism they once opposed.
Israel: Exporting Spyware
Israel, a democracy, permits private firms to export spyware under a state-regulated system.
Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group, is marketed as a tool licensed to government agencies for counterterrorism and serious crime investigations.
However, investigations have linked it to the surveillance of journalists, activists, lawyers and political opponents.
Pegasus spyware can infiltrate smartphones without the user clicking on a link. It can grant access to messages, calls, microphones and cameras.
It has been linked to the surveillance of journalists in Mexico, opposition politicians in India and civil society groups in Hungary.
Israel tightened export rules in 2021, insisting sales go only to trusted governments for legitimate purposes. Yet the problem has not disappeared.
In early 2025, it was revealed Paragon Solutions, an Israeli spyware firm cofounded by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, developed a powerful surveillance tool capable of potentially compromising encrypted communications.
WhatsApp said last year nearly 100 journalists and members of civil society had been targeted using Paragon spyware.
Reporters at Citizen Lab later identified the spyware as a Paragon product, Graphite, and confirmed it had been used against journalists. It remains unclear who exactly the perpetrators were.
Through its export control system for offensive cyber tools, Israel is still allowing Israeli firms such as NSO Group and Paragon Solutions to sell spyware abroad, including Pegasus and Graphite.
This has contributed to concerns about the normalization of commercial spyware.
India: Pegasus Turned Inward
In India, Amnesty International’s Security Lab reported forensic evidence of Pegasus being used on the phones of high-profile journalists.
Earlier reporting alleged Indian journalists, activists, lawyers and opposition figures appeared among potential targets. Following a petition, the Supreme Court will soon decide whether there should be an investigation into “India’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware on journalists, activists and public officials”.
The perpetrator has not been conclusively identified in those forensic reports, but NSO Group says Pegasus is licensed only to law enforcement and the intelligence agencies of sovereign states and government agencies.
