I want to talk about Pegasus, the Israeli-made spyware, because it’s definitely NOTHING LIKE the graceful winged horse from Greek mythology.
What it is, is basically a dictator’s wet dream. Cooked up by NSO Group, this thing is a privacy-destroying, life-endangering monster that’s been used to stalk, silence, and even to set up the murder of people who dare speak out.
Dissidents, journalists, and alternative news folks are prime targets, and the case of Jamal Khashoggi shows just how deadly this tech can be. Buckle up, because the topic of sypware is full to the rim with dystopian nightmare fuel.
What Pegasus Does: Total Invasion
Pegasus isn’t your average malware. It’s a high-tech sledgehammer that smashes into your phone – iOS or Android, it doesn’t matter – and takes over like it owns the place. Once it’s in, it’s game over for privacy. It literally has access to everything: texts, emails, call logs, photos, even your WhatsApp and Telegram chats.
It can turn on your camera or mic to spy in real time, track your every move via GPS, and run commands like it’s the device’s owner. And it’s sneaky, barely leaving any trace of itself on your phone and able to delete itself if it smells trouble.
The scariest part? It doesn’t even need you to screw up and click a shady link. By using “Zero-click” it can sneak in through vulnerabilities in apps like iMessage or WhatsApp, or even hijack your Wi-Fi or cell signal.
For dissidents and indie news outlets exposing corruption or governmental abuses, this can quite literally be a death sentence. One minute you’re planning a story, the next, some regime has your entire life on a platter.
Khashoggi: The Murder Pegasus Helped Plan
Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, learned this the hard way. In 2018, he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never came out. He was tortured, killed, and chopped up, all because he dared criticize Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And Pegasus played a starring role in his murder.
Saudi Arabia, one of NSO’s eager customers, used the spyware to hack the phones of Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, and his wife, Hanan Elatr, months before the hit. They got access to his plans, his contacts, his every word. That intel likely helped them set the trap that ended his life.
This wasn’t just surveillance; it was a digital hit job.
Pegasus gave the Saudis the keys to Khashoggi’s world, letting them track and plan his killing with surgical precision.
If you’re a dissident or running an outlet exposing powerful people, this is the kind of threat that can keep you up at night.
Why Dissidents and Indie Media Are Screwed
Pegasus is a nightmare for anyone trying to shine a light into dark corners. Dissidents and alternative news outlets, in fact, anyone calling out corruption or human rights horrors are already on thin ice through censorship and government persecution.
Pegasus makes it even worse by ripping away any shred of security. It can expose your sources, your unpublished stories, even your next move.
The 2021 Pegasus Project, led by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, dropped a bombshell: over 50,000 people, including journalists and activists, were being targeted by Pegasus. Palestinian human rights groups got hit especially hard, showing how this tech is used to crush anyone who dares resist those in charge of our world.
For indie media, it’s a gut punch.
You’re already dodging censorship and threats, and now you’ve got spyware that can gut your operation from the inside. One compromised phone, and your whole network – reporters, sources, editors, EVERYONE – is exposed.
Arrests, intimidation, or worse can follow. Look at cases in Russia or Mexico: journalists in exile or local muckrakers targeted to keep them quiet.
The Dirty Business Behind It
NSO swears Pegasus is only for catching terrorists or criminals, but that assertion is frankly a load of crap. Authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kazakhstan, and others are using it to hunt dissenters and inconvenient journalists. Mexico’s ex-president is even under fire for allegedly taking $25 million in bribes tied to NSO deals.
The U.S. slapped a blacklist on NSO in 2021, but the damage keeps spreading. This isn’t just tech; it’s a tool for oppression, sold to the highest bidder and used mercilessly by Israel’s terrorist regime.
Check out this Podcast about how the IDF uses Spyware and AI to commit murder
The Bottom Line
Pegasus is a digital assassin, plain and simple. It’s stripping away privacy and putting lives at risk, from Khashoggi’s murder to the targeting of countless others.
For dissidents and alternative voices, it’s a constant threat, turning their own devices against them.
Until there’s real accountability, like laws, bans, any meaningful action on a global scale, this spyware will keep empowering tyrants to silence the truth.
We need to wake up and fight back before more voices get snuffed out.